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Tampa Man Jailed After Attack On Female HART Bus Driver

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By JOSH POLTILOVE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 20, 2008

Updated: 05/20/2008 03:16 pm

  Luis Daniel Colon

TAMPA - Luis Daniel Colon made sure he was the last passenger on a HART bus Monday night, then jumped up, held a knife to the driver's neck and told her to drive, police say.

It was about 10 p.m., and they were near Interbay Boulevard and Manhattan Avenue in South Tampa.

He told her to drive to a dark area, police said.

"The defendant actually cut his own hand and licked his own blood," a police report states.

According to the report:

Colon, a 19-year-old Tampa man, touched the driver inappropriately and kissed her while she drove. He forced her to stop the bus near West Shore Boulevard and Wallace Avenue. He grabbed the driver's hand and pulled her from the bus.

They walked down the street, and he was "essentially keeping her hostage."

Colon took her to a dark area. She broke away, and he punched her face.

He then chased her as she ran to the bus.

"She saw her opportunity to escape when he was trying to take her behind the house in that dark area," police spokeswoman Andrea Davis said. "Her instincts to do what she did were correct. What he would have done to her in that location, only he knows. But we can pretty much suspect the worst."

Colon then fled.

Once police received the 911 call, 12 units, including a helicopter, tried to find him. They had him in custody within 10 minutes, Davis said.

He was arrested at 10:45 p.m. by Officer Eric Brook in the 4600 block of Pearl Avenue.

When police arrested him, Colon had a bloody hand and scratches. He told police the injuries were from a fight he was in because of his Latin Kings gang membership, but police say he got the injuries from fighting with the driver.

He is not in the Tampa Police Department's database as a member of the Latin Kings, Davis said.

Reached by phone today, the bus driver said she had signaled for help to a HART dispatcher by using a safe word and that the dispatcher called police. Her name is being withheld because of the nature of the charges.

A person who lived nearby also called 911 after hearing the bus driver scream, Davis said. The 911 calls are not available to the media because they are part of an ongoing investigation.

HART video and audio recordings have been turned over to Tampa police and will not be available to the media, HART spokeswoman Kathy Karalekas said.

Mike McCoy, president of Local 1593 of the Amalgamated Transit Workers Union, which represents the drivers, said the incident brings to light how dangerous it is to drive buses in urban areas.

He said the driver is a strong-willed person who is going to be all right.

He also said he had some issues with how HART handled the incident while it occurred.

"There were some policies that we don't think were adhered to properly last night, and we're going to address them with management," he said today. "The policies, in our opinion, weren't followed properly. And we'd like to correct them before this incident happens again."

McCoy would not discuss specific issues he had.

Without knowing more details about McCoy's complaints, Karalekas said she couldn't comment on them.

"The safety of our drivers is of utmost importance," she said, adding that HART offers an employee assistance program and that if the bus driver needs counseling, it will be provided for her.

"We're helping TPD with their investigation," Karalekas said. "And we do our own internal analysis, too. If we find anything that would need to be different, if it came out in the investigation, we would do that."

Karalekas declined to comment on HART's safety procedures, saying that doing so might cause a safety risk.

She did, however, say that buses are safe to ride at night.

"Riding a bus is really as safe as anything else – driving your own car or anything," she said.

Colon was charged with carjacking with a deadly weapon, armed kidnapping, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, lewd and lascivious behavior and battery.

He was in Orient Road Jail this afternoon. His bail had not been set.

Reporter Karen Branch-Brioso contributed to this report. Reporter Josh Poltilove can be reached at jpoltilove@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7691.

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