A New Jersey Transit bus driver was filmed savagely beating up a passenger and putting him in a chokehold after the young commuter got in his face and challenged him to a fight off the bus.
Video of the brutal Aug. 16 brawl has since gone viral, showing the passenger might have spit on the driver during the confrontation, but since his back was turned to the camera, it’s unclear if he actually did.
The driver has since been identified as Toron Walker, who was arrested on charges of aggravated assault, according to a report by RLS Media.
New Jersey Transit officials have not commented on the incident nor said whether Walker still has his job.
It’s not clear how long Walker has been employed by the Transit Authority or if he has had any previous altercations with passengers.
Remarkably, the violent incident occurred during Gov. Phil Murphy’s free transit holidayand immediately raised concerns about the safety of NJ Transit bus service just as the state was trying to tout its reliability. While the initiative aimed to offer no-cost rides, the violent altercation between a bus driver and a passenger underscored the ongoing challenges within the state transit system.
The shocking footage begins with an argument already in progress at the front of the bus. The younger man faces off with the driver, who repeatedly yells, “Do something! I dare you!”
During the heated exchange, the driver accused the passenger of spitting on the bus floor, which he had pulled to the side of the road to argue with the man in the aisle.
Passengers standing directly behind the combatants, including a woman holding a small baby, began backing up as the fight escalated.
At this point, the younger man started daring the driver to step outside, but that only provoked the driver, who began pacing around aggressively and suggested they throw hands right then and there.
“See me right now! See me right now!” the driver repeated, but the passenger held back and didn’t respond.
That’s when the driver threatened, “I’ll knock your little ass the f— out,” which only angered the younger man further. He responded by squaring up and challenging the driver, saying, “Do it, then.”
Frustrated, the driver addressed the passengers, saying, “Ladies and gentlemen,” and instructed everyone to leave the bus through the back exit, directing them, “Go that way, go that way,” while waving his hand.
As the passengers grabbed their belongings and passed in front of the camera, the driver could be heard yelling, “What you gonna do?”
When the men came into view again, the driver was throwing haymakers that quickly overwhelmed the younger man. The attack was sudden; the passenger barely had the chance to put up his guard.
Before the young man hit the floor, the driver seized him by the throat while delivering a series of hard punches and then aggressively pinning him down.
While falling backward to the floor, the man’s head appears to knock hard into a metal luggage rack, causing his body to go limp with the driver’s hands still around his throat.
The driver spun on top of him like a wrestler and restrained the man’s upper body while his legs were tangled up in the seats, leaving him dangling upside down and defenseless.
“I will kill you,” the driver can be heard growling while on top of the man, who was not moving anymore.
The driver squeezed his neck harder, and put his full body weight on the man’s chest and punched him several times in the head, causing the witnesses to gasp in horror.
During the beating, the bus driver cussed angrily and brazenly claimed he had it in him to kill someone.
“Do you know who you talking to, ni—a! I’m a motherf—king killer, ni—a,” the driver roared as he choked the man to the floor, shaking his head violently like a rattle. “You got me f—ked up,” he kept preaching to the man.
By now, the bus rider showed no signs of life aside from his hand clutching the seat to avoid being completely pulled to the floor.
Passengers began shouting and protesting for the driver to get off the man.
But the beating was far from over.
“F—k wrong with you, ni—a? You wanna spit? Ni—a, I’ll f—king kill you, ni—a!” the driver yelled more aggressively, punching the man in the head and neck several more times before roughly pulling him down to the floor in the aisle.
Now standing over the man, the driver landed several more crushing blows to his head and body while horrified passengers desperately begged him to stop, but their pleas went unanswered.
A different angle of the fight revealed the victim’s vulnerable position, as he was defenseless, with the driver gripping him by the throat from above.
The driver continued pounding the man, who was now curled up in a fetal position beneath the luggage shelf, as passengers yelled, “Stop!”
The video ends with the driver still on the man’s back, holding him down in the aisle as several new passengers began boarding.
“You f—king with a real ni—a!” the driver yelled while slamming the man in a seat and punching him in the head twice more.
Police said the victim — whom they also charged with aggravated assault — didn’t suffer any severe injuries in the one-sided brawl.
