The driver was violently attacked in Rillieux-la-Pape, in the northern suburbs of Lyon, last week, for asking two individuals to put out their cigarettes.
One of the suspects is still at large but his accomplices have been arrested. Three of the four young people who attacked a bus driver and filmed the events last week in Rillieux-la-Pape were arrested, indicates the management of the Rhône national police. Masked, they had beaten the driver, at the Semailles stop, in the evening, when the latter had asked them to put out their cigarettes. They managed to escape before the arrival of the police.
The victim filed a complaint and an investigation was opened. It made it possible to identify three individuals aged 16, 17 and 18 years old. The two oldest are known unfavorably to the police. According to the reconstruction of the facts, made possible by the availability of surveillance images from the bus, only the 17-year-old suspect and the individual still wanted carried out the blows. The other two were content to film the facts.
Simple request to “don’t smoke on the bus”
Placed in police custody, the three young people partially admitted the facts, citing a dispute that occurred with the driver a few days earlier. “Our driver was attacked for simply asking a passenger not to smoke on his bus», opposed Bruno Bernard, the environmentalist president of the metropolis of Lyon and Sytral, the transport regulatory authority. The three suspects were presented to the Lyon prosecutor’s office on Thursday before the children’s judge.
Bruno Bernard thanked the police services, sending his support to the injured officer. “We will continue to strengthen security on the TCL networkhe added in a message published on the social network We cannot deplore the lack of personnel in essential professions while allowing individuals to attack those who practice them”. As a reminder, bus service to the entire town of Rillieux-la-Pape was suspended in November following the arson of two buses by rioters.
