CapMetro bus drivers scared to go to work after recent deadly stabbing; call for change

Yahoo

24-05-2025

The Brief
CapMetro bus drivers say they are scared to go to work amid recent deadly stabbing on a bus
Bus drivers are now calling on CapMetro to make changes
Transit Police Department officers will start patrolling next month
AUSTIN, Texas - CapMetro bus drivers are afraid to go to work. They are calling on the transit agency to make changes.
They said many have been assaulted and robbed on the job. This comes after a passenger was stabbed to death on a bus just last week.
The backstory
Police said on May 14, around 6:45 p.m., officers and Austin-Travis County EMS responded to a shoot/stab hotshot call in the 500 block of South Lamar Boulevard. The caller said someone had been stabbed on a CapMetro bus.
When officers arrived, they found a victim, later identified as Akshay Gupta, with trauma to his body. He later died from his injuries.
The investigation showed the suspect, 31-year-old Deepak Kandel, was sitting next to Gupta on the bus when, without provocation, Kandel stabbed Gupta in the neck.
Once the bus stopped, Kandel left the bus with other passengers.
Police were able to find Kandel shortly after and arrest him. He admitted to stabbing Gupta because he said Gupta looked like his uncle.
Kandel was booked into the Travis County Jail and was charged with murder.
What they're saying
Bus operators said things happen all the time.
"I would say, since COVID, I don't know what's in the water, but it's pretty bad out there. You got a lot of mentally ill people or people that are a little off, and they're riding our buses, and our operators who should be focusing on the safety of operating their buses got to be counselors, got to be therapists," Austin Amalgamated Transit Union President Brent Payne said.
"I had an unhoused gentleman come up and try assaulting, try choking me," a CapMetro bus operator told the transit agency's board.
"None of us should ever have to come to work in fight or flight mode or survival mode and stressed out wondering if we'll even make it home at the end of our shifts," a 6-year CapMetro bus operator said.
"We've had operators quit, saying, I'm not getting paid enough to deal with this kind of temperament," Payne said.
Bus operators said they can't necessarily protect themselves.
"We're not allowed to carry weapons or pepper spray," Payne said.
They said no one else is there to protect them either.
"We have been waiting for years for the Metro Police Department. Are they ready for the call to duty?" a bus operator said to the board.
The backstory
The CapMetro Transit Police Department swore in its first three officers, including Chief Robins, back in August 2024.
"Since that time, we have been really doing quite a bit of getting ourselves prepared to deploy officers, specifically putting together policies, procedures, obviously hiring, recruiting, hiring, and doing those types of things, but there's quite a bit of work that goes on in the background when you establish in a police department specifically for the first time," CapMetro Police Chief Eric Robins said.
Chief Robins said they have hired an additional nine officers and two sergeants with hopes to have a total of 24 officers by fiscal year 2026.
"We're in a competitive market when it comes to law enforcement and hiring officers, but we want to make sure that those officers are the officers that are going to be people-centric, focus on what our missions and our goals and our values are, and working in our system to, obviously, do everything we can to de-escalate situations and to keep our system safe," Chief Robins said.
The CapMetro police chief said they plan to start patrolling June 16.
The other side
"I don't see them being fully staffed for another year or two. At this pace, it's not going to happen any time soon," Payne said.
Payne said the direct impact of that is:
"Now you're forcing everyday bargaining employee people to be their own security, unfortunately," Payne said.
Payne said even if another law enforcement agency responds and someone is arrested, "you can do something to a bus operator and be out that same day, which is one of the problems I struggle with right now."
"And they could be back on the bus?" FOX 7 Crime Watch Reporter Meredith Aldis asked Payne.
"Back on the bus before you get off your shift," Payne responded.
Payne is pushing for House Bill 689 which increases the criminal penalty for certain offenses committed in a vehicle operated by a public transportation system. It still needs a vote from the House and Senate.
"We're just people who are trying to go home to our families," Payne said.
The Source
Information from interviews conducted by FOX 7 Austin's Meredith Aldis