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She Was Brutally Assaulted in a Hate Crime on a St. Louis Bus | St. Louis

Published

10 months ago

December 15, 2023

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click to enlarge COURTESY SYDNEY MAISIE Sydney Maisie says still has “trauma flashbacks” when she rides the bus.

Sydney Maisie was on her way to a job interview in Webster Groves when her bus ride turned horribly wrong.

On the afternoon of April 13, a man entered the MetroBus she was on. He only had a $20 bill to pay the bus’ $1 fare. Buses don’t give change, and the man made a “huge scene” about how he had to shell out $20 to enter. So the bus driver allowed the man to board the bus and gave him back his $20, causing him to “gleefully” gloat about his free ride to one man, showing him his $20, according to Maisie.

The new passenger, a Black with a medium build who authorities are still trying to identify, eventually made his way to the back of the bus and sat in a corner. Maisie, a transgender woman, was in a row in front of him. Her instincts told her “don’t interact, don’t interact” as the man spoke to himself and glanced at her.

At one point, Maisie says he motioned for her to come over and sit next to him, which she interpreted as flirting. She declined his advances, saying, “No thanks, I’d rather not.” The man came toward her anyway.

“In a frustrated tone that sounded disappointed, he said, ‘Man, you sound like an old man,’” Maisie recalls. “I was like, ‘Huh?’ And that’s when he started to beat the fuck out of me.”

What happened for the next 90 seconds or so would shock St. Louis in its brutality. The assault, all captured by a MetroBus security camera, involved the man punching, slapping, kicking, and threatening Maisie with a handgun.

The FBI has launched a hate crime investigation into the assault and released footage of the incident this week to announce a $10,000 reward for information on the man’s identity.

FBI spokesperson Rebecca Naber says the agency is following up on tips it received.

Maisie, who on Thursday spoke about the incident for the first time to a reporter, says she still has “trauma flashbacks” when she rides the bus.

It’s “haunting” to know the man is still out there, Maisie adds.

But Maisie is also keenly aware that what happened to her isn’t rare. According to the FBI’s latest hate crime statistics, there was a “significant increase” of anti-transgender incidents in 2022.

What’s more, on the day the FBI released the footage and Maisie’s assault made headlines, other local stories illustrated the reality of violence in the city. It was the same day a 12-year-old shot his mom’s boyfriend in the head, and news broke that a St. Louis man had been charged with two firearm-related felonies after pulling a gun on a woman he met through a dating app.

“Shit like this happens all the time,” Maisie says. “It’s just another headline.”Yet as far as attacks on MetroBuses, Kevin Scott, general manager of security for Bistate Development, tells the RFT that incidents like Maisie’s assault are very rare.When asked if there were any security measures in place that could have prevented Maisie’s assault, particularly in regard to the assailant’s gun, Scott says it’s not possible to “scan” riders at all 59 bus routes in MetroTransit’s three-jurisdiction scope. But the agency does has employ public safety personnel who patrol bus routes and transit centers and respond to calls for help. Security guards and police officers, including some from SLMPD, according to Scott, ride the buses. “We can’t have a police officer on every bus, but we try to create a dynamic where police officers in overtime and off-duty capacity ride some of our buses for visibility and comfort,” Scott says.

There wasn’t a security guard or police officer on Maisie’s bus, and it bus kept traveling its route while Maisie was attacked. Even through the chaos of it all, Maisie says she remembers questioning why it seemed as if no one else on the packed bus reacted. “Why were there no turning heads?” She remembers kicking back and screaming “Somebody help me!”

“Nobody’s going to help you here!” Maisie says the man said as he pulled out his gun.

“No one seemed to notice until after I was on the ground in a fetal position [and] in tears,” Maisie says.

The man eventually stopped. Maisie is unsure why. In the minute after the bus came to a stop, the man left.

Surprisingly, Maisie had no serious injuries and did not go to a hospital. She did, however, experience extreme pain throughout her body in the weeks afterward. She was bruised for about a month.

Maisie was on her way to a second job interview at a massage clinic in Webster Groves (she didn’t end up rescheduling the interview). The inner-ring suburb is not too far from St. Louis’ Shaw neighborhood, where Maisie boarded the bus that day. Yet she notes that what would take a car just 10-15 minutes on the road involved a two-hour trip on the bus with three different stops, Maisie says.

Maisie is a staunch supporter of public transit, and still uses it exclusively. Even so, she wonders if things would have been different if St. Louis’ system was safer or more efficient.

“It shows how big of a failure public transit is in St. Louis,” Maisie says. “It’s not safe. Like nobody should have a gun on the bus. But he did.”

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Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

Published

5 months ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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A warrant is out for a Fenton man’s arrest after he allegedly attacked his roommate with a sword.

Police say that on Sunday, Angelus Scott spoke openly about “slicing his roommate’s head” before he grabbed a sword, raised it up and then swung it down at the roommate.

The roommate grabbed Scott’s hand in time to prevent injury. When police arrived at the scene, they found the weapon used in the assault.

The sword in question was a katana, which is a Japanese sword recognizable for its curved blade.

This isn’t the first time a samurai-style sword has been used to violent effect in St. Louis. In 2018, a man hearing voices slaughtered his ex-boyfriend with a samurai sword. His mother said he suffered from schizoaffective disorder.

As for Scott, 35, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was charged yesterday with two felonies, assault first degree and armed criminal action. The warrant for his arrest says he is to be held on $200,000 bond.

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Caught on Video, Sheriff Says He’s Ready to ‘Turn It All Over’ to Deputy

Published

5 months ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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Video of St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts taken by a former deputy suggests that the sheriff has a successor in mind to hand the reins of the department over to, even as Betts is in an increasingly heated campaign for reelection.

“I ain’t here for all this rigmarole,” Betts says in the video while seated behind his desk at the Carnahan Courthouse. “The Lord sent me here to turn this department around and I’m doing the best I can and I think I’ve done a good job. I’ve got about eight months and I’m going to qualify for my fourth pension.”

He goes on, “Right now I can walk up out of here and live happily ever after and forget about all this…and live like a king.”

The sheriff then says his wife has been in Atlanta looking at houses and that the other deputy in the room, Donald Hawkins, is someone Betts has been training “to turn it all over to him.”

Asked about the video, Betts tells the RFT, “My future plans are to win reelection on August 6th by a wide margin and to continue my mission as the top elected law enforcement official to make St. Louis safer and stronger. Serving the people of St. Louis with integrity, honor and professional law enforcement qualifications is a sacred responsibility, and I intend to complete that mission.”

The video of Betts was taken by Barbara Chavers, who retired from the sheriff’s office in 2016 after 24 years of service. Chavers now works security at Schnucks at Grand and Gravois. Betts’ brother Howard works security there, too.

Chavers tells the RFT that she was summoned to Betts’ office last week after Betts’ brother made the sheriff aware that she was supporting Montgomery. It was no secret: Chavers had filmed a Facebook live video in which she said she was supporting Betts’ opponent Alfred Montgomery in the election this fall. “Make the judges safe,” she says in the video, standing in front of a large Montgomery sign on Gravois Avenue. “They need a sheriff who is going to make their courtrooms safe.”

In his office, even as Chavers made clear she was filming him, Betts told Chavers he was “flabbergasted” and “stunned” she was supporting Montgomery.

“I don’t know what I did that would make you go against the preacher man,” he says, referring to himself. He then refers to Montgomery as “ungodly.”

Betts goes on to say that not long ago, he was walking in his neighborhood on St. Louis Avenue near 20th Street when suddenly Montgomery pulled up in his car and, according to Betts, shouted, “You motherfucker, you this, you that. You’re taking my signs down.”

Montgomery tells the RFT that he’s never interacted with Betts outside of candidate forums and neighborhood meetings.

“I don’t think anyone with good sense would do something like that to a sitting sheriff,” Montgomery says.

Montgomery has had campaign signs missing and on at least two occasions has obtained video of people tearing them down. (Chavers notes that the sign that she filmed her original Facebook video in front of is itself now missing.)

One man who lives near Columbus Square says that he recently put out two Montgomery signs, which later went missing. “If they keep taking them, I’ll keep putting them up,” he said.

Betts says he has nothing to do with the missing signs. In the video Chavers filmed in Betts’ office, Betts says that his campaign isn’t in a spot where it needs to resort to tearing down opponents’ signs.

“If you sit here long enough, a man is getting ready to come across the street from City Hall bringing me $500, today,” Betts says. “I’m getting that kind of support. I don’t need to tear down signs.”

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St. Louis to Develop First Citywide Transportation Plan in Decades

Published

5 months ago

May 21, 2024

Natural Bridge

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The City of St. Louis is working to develop its first citywide mobility plan in decades, Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office announced Tuesday. This plan seeks to make it easier for everyone — drivers, pedestrians, bikers and public transit users — to safely commute within the city.

The plan will bring together other city projects like the Brickline Greenway, Future64, the MetroLink Green Line, and more, “while establishing new priorities for a safer, more efficient and better-maintained transportation network across the City,” according to the release.

The key elements in the plan will be public engagement, the development of a safety action plan, future infrastructure priorities and transportation network mapping, according to Jones’ office.

The overarching goals are to create a vision for citywide mobility, plan a mixture of short and long-term mobility projects and to develop improved communication tools with the public to receive transportation updates. In recent years, both people who use public transit and cyclists have been outspoken about the difficulties — and dangers — of navigating St. Louis streets, citing both cuts to public transit and traffic violence.

To garner public input and participation for the plan, Jones’ office said there will be community meetings, focus groups and a survey for residents to share their concerns. The city will also be establishing a Community Advisory Committee. Those interested in learning more should check out at tmp-stl.com/

“Everyone deserves to feel safe when getting around St. Louis, whether they’re driving, biking, walking or taking public transit,” Jones said in a news release. “Creating a comprehensive transportation and mobility plan allows us to make intentional and strategic investments so that moving around St. Louis for jobs, education, and entertainment becomes easier, safer and more enjoyable.”

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