An angry bus driver for Cleveland punched an irate female passenger in the face

Oct 13, 2012 09:57 GMT  ·  By

This video of a driver punching a young woman sparked a lot of controversy, with many saying the state employee had no right to physically assault a passenger.

25-year-old Shi'dea Lane from Cleveland is the girl injured in the video, Fox8 reported after tracking down the girl. She identified the man as 59-year-old Artis Hughes, of East Cleveland.

In the clip, it looks like the driver was confronted for prior actions and, as the discussion got heated, he proceeded to not only uppercut her, but also grab her hair. The girl was tossed on the floor, possibly plummeting under the force of the well-built man's punch.

Lane came forward and explained the driver was asking her to pay for a ticket, and she was looking for the money in her purse. The man started insulting her, claiming she was lying and had no intention of paying.

The incident happened on September 18. Hughes asked the girl to get off at the next stop, but the girl insisted she would find the money to pay for the ticket.

“He said ‘I’ll drop you off here,’ [I] didn’t want to get off and he said ‘I’ll drop you off at the first stop I get to,” she described.

She had previously spat on him, after she had received rude comments about her appearance, in which the driver described her as having her face sliced up.

As he pulls her off the floor, forcibly grabs her arm and brutally tosses her off the bus, he explains his actions to the rest of the passengers, terrified by the scene.

"She wants to be a man, I'm gonna treat you like a man," he says.

Many users are demanding for the man to be arrested and prosecuted for his actions, as well as fired before his loose temper could lead him to hurt passengers worse, if they were to cross him.

The RTA police report has Hughes on record fighting back, and relaying his version of the event:

“She said she would spit on me, that’s when I told her I would hurt her, she continued to threaten me and as I was driving, she grabbed me in the throat and spit on me in the face.  I stopped the bus and I protected myself and got off the bus,” he says.

Artis Hughes is currently on unpaid suspension, until the investigation into this matter is concluded.