An MTA bus driver stabbed and beat a passenger who flew into a rage when the bus driver refused to let him off mid-stop in Brooklyn on Friday, authorities and sources said.
Bus driver Ian Bascombe, 58, was behind the wheel of the B41 at Foster and Flatbush avenues in Kensington around 12:20 p.m. when a troubled “known repeat offender” customer, Quentin Branch, 33, ordered him to stop because he had boarded the bus. according to police and sources on the wrong bus.
Bascombe tried to keep driving until he could find a safe place to stop — but Branch wasn’t having it, sources said.
The irate rider is said to have spat at Bascombe and then said angrily: “I’m going to break your jaw” before punching him in the left eye, sources said.
Bascombe allegedly pulled out a “sharp object” and stabbed Branch in the head and left leg, police said.
Both men were taken to Kings County Hospital Center for treatment and arrested, police said.
The East Flatbush department was charged with second- and third-degree assault and harassment, authorities said.
He is known as a “repeat transit offender,” sources said, although information about his criminal history was not immediately available Friday.
Bascombe of Prospect Park South was also charged with second- and third-degree assault, as well as criminal possession of a weapon, police and sources said.
The operator has worked for the MTA for 20 years, the agency said.
“Violence on buses puts New Yorkers at risk and is not acceptable,” NYC Transit Senior Vice President for Buses Frank Annicaro said in a statement. “Pending an internal review, this bus company will be taken out of service.”
