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Page 4
Rattled Drivers
life, a gun.
While waiting on a bus plat
down, smile, let’s just go,” he form in the Lents Neighborhood
says.
on 82nd Avenue and Powell
But on June 20, just after get Street with another female bus
ting off work, still in uniform, operator, he said he was ap
Martin would run into something proached by a fran tic m an
he had never encountered in his screaming that he had just had a
continued
from front
gun pointed at him. Martin di
rected the man to a nearby un
marked police car, but almost
immediately a gun-wielding man
came around the com er where
Martin and the operator were
standing.
R eferring to that m om ent
when the gun was brandished,
Martin says with dread, “that
gun only had a small barrel, but I
tell you it felt like a cannon to
July 24.2013
me.”In that instant he says his
mind raced as he thought about
his daughter and girlfriend, as
well as the safety of the driver
next to him who he said was
“freaking out.”
The turmoil happened just a
few feet away from a 7-11 con
venience outlet. Martin later dis
covered there was store surveil
lance video showing an argu
ment between two men inside
the store, with one of the men
leaving the store with a gun in
hand pointed outward.
Though there were other wit
nesses and even a description of
the gunman, no arrests were
made.
once in the chest, and twice in
the stomach.
The worker was rushed to the
hospital with non-life-threaten-
ing injuries and later identified as
40-year-old Fadi Hamad, a long
time Tri-Met employee.
Police continue to investigate
the July 17 incident and have
offered up to a $1,000 reward
for information leading to the
arrest o f Ham ad’s attacker.
“Any sort of attack like this is
disturbing to us,” says TriMet
public relations officer Roberta
Altstadt. “We take the safety of
our drivers and riders very seri
ously.”
TriM et’s director of safety
Any sort o f attack like this
is disturbing to us. We take
the safety o f our drivers and
riders very seriously.
- TriMet public relations officer Roberta Altstadt
SUMME
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A spokesperson for TriMet
Transit Police said because no
person was physically harmed,
and because there were con
flicting stories about what actu
ally happened, a crime w asn’t
apparent or didn’t occur and the
investigation ended.
Since the incident, both M ar
tin and the other driver have
taken time off work. Separately,
bo th have b egun rec e iv in g
therapy to begin working through
the experience, Martin said.
The 48-year-old M artin said
he now has constant, uncontrol
lable facial twitches, and still has
trouble coping with the incident.
Per the advice of his thera
pist, he went into a 7-11 store
just feet away from where the
incident occurred as part of an
exercise to heal the mental shock
he had encountered.
There has been a long history
of violent attacks on bus opera
tors at Tri-Met, both verbal and
physical although operators don ’ t
necessarily report them every
time. Since October 2012 there
h av e b een th re e o p e ra to rs
stabbed; two of those happened
while coming out of the transit
agency’s designated break ar
eas.
Last week, a bus operator
was stabbed in broad daylight
coming out o f a Tri-Met break
room on Southeast 94th Avenue
and Foster Road. Police say the
perpetrator immediately began
hurling racial epithets at the driver
and then stabbed him three times;
I
and security Harry Saporta said,
“Sometimes an operator will
experience a rider who is upset,
especially over paying a fare.
The operators are trained how
to assess the situation and avoid
a confrontation. T h ey ’re in
structed to request the assis
tance of a supervisor rather than
have a situation escalate.”
Last w eek’s stabbing, how
ever, was a much different situ
ation, Saporta said.
“The operator happened to be
in the wrong place, at the wrong
time. Anyone in that area that
happened to come in contact
with the suspect could have be
come a victim,” he said.
In light of the recent attacks,
TriMet has increased security in
certain hotspots, and say they
have plans on joining citizens at
City Hall soon in an effort to do
so m e th in g ab o u t h o m e less
camps in the Lents Neighbor
hood, which they feel are a ma
jo r source of concern for not
only operator safety, but that of
the general public as well.
Dan Martin is still off work
and continues to attend therapy.
He remains fervent in his belief
that the acts he experienced on
June 20 deserve to be explored
deeper. He continues to work
with his union in an effort to get
a second look.
“I’m hugely disappointed. I
thought I was a valuable em
ployee,” he says.’T’ve given
them 110 percent every day that
I work.”