Rider Captures Video of an MBTA Employee Getting Hit With a Cane

An MBTA rider who apparently didn’t want to pay his fare started swinging his cane at two MBTA employees and a bystander, after one of the employees tried to shuffle him out of a Green Line station on Friday afternoon, according to T officials and a video posted online.

In the video above, an older man can be seen whacking a T employee in the side, multiple times, after the employee tried to stop him from going into the station. The incident happened after the employee put up a hand to prevent the rider from walking away from the scene.

According to Uiee Santiago, who recorded the footage of the incident, the elderly rider didn’t pay his fare at the Hynes Convention Center stop, and MBTA workers tried to intervene. A second T worker, not shown in the video, tried to help and was also assaulted by the man with the cane, a T spokesperson confirmed. Shortly after the second attack, a bystander tried to step in, and was hit with the cane, too.

A second witness reported that the man, who had to be held down against his will until the second employee came over to the scene, “[started] beating the MBTA attendant with his cane before he was wrestled to the ground.”

According to MBTA spokesperson Kelly Smith, Transit Police put the cane-wielding individual into custody not long after the video was captured by Santiago, and brought him to police headquarters. He was allegedly intoxicated, and later sent to a hospital for evaluation. Smith said the suspect will appear in court next week to face charges for the attack.

One of the T employees was sent to the hospital for minor injuries sustained by the man’s cane.