In the latest in a string of violent episodes on the Los Angeles Metro system, three people were stabbed May 13 in two incidents.
The first occurred in Glendale around 7:06 p.m. when three juveniles on a bus tried to steal a man’s backpack near West Los Feliz Road and South Central Avenue, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
The bus driver stopped at the intersection and the altercation carried on outside, where authorities said the man was stabbed in the arm and one of the suspects was stabbed in the leg.
The suspects fled, but two—including the wounded one—were apprehended by officers from the Glendale Police Department. One reportedly remains on the loose.
The man and wounded boy were taken to a hospital and are in stable condition.
Just two hours later, a woman was stabbed in the arm in South Los Angeles at a Metro C (Green) Line station at South Vermont Avenue and the Glenn Anderson Freeway. She was taken to a hospital in unknown condition, according to the sheriff’s department.
The suspect, described as a man wearing all black, is believed to have escaped by boarding a westbound train toward Hawthorne, authorities said.
The Metro system has been the scene of a score of violent incidents lately. On April 13, a suspect punched a bus driver with brass knuckles and stabbed him in the chest before fleeing in the Willowbrook neighborhood of South LA. The victim survived.
On April 22, a woman was fatally stabbed in the neck as she was getting off a train in Studio City, the Los Angeles Police Department reported.
In response, the LA Metro board of directors approved an emergency procurement declaration during an April 29 meeting to expedite the purchase and installation of 2,000 protective barriers for its bus drivers, due to the “sudden, unexpected, increased severity of assaults on operators,” directors said.
The board also proposed further safety measures such as adding cameras, using facial recognition, and securing transit station entrances and exits.
