Bus Tragedy: Lawsuit Claims Driver Ignored Passenger’s Pleas During Fatal Stabbing

In a tragic incident that has gripped Las Vegas, a bus driver’s inaction during a fatal stabbing has sparked outrage and led to a lawsuit. The heartbreaking event unfolded as a passenger, Dominique Lucas, who had cognitive disabilities, pleaded desperately for help while being attacked. Despite his cries of “let me off, let me off,” the driver did not stop the bus for four crucial minutes, according to allegations in a recently settled lawsuit.

Dominique Lucas, only 30 at the time of his death, was fatally assaulted on a Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada (RTC) bus early in 2023. The wrongful death lawsuit, filed by his grieving family against the RTC, its operator Keolis, and the bus driver Marvin Scott, reached a settlement last week, as reported by local CBS affiliate KLAS.

“He wanted to be let off the bus,” recounted Donniesha Lucas, Dominique’s sister, during a poignant interview with KLAS in March 2023, expressing her family’s anguish over the loss of her brother.

The tragic events unfolded on February 26, 2023, when Aaron Cole, aged 62, launched a brutal attack on Lucas. The assault, captured by surveillance cameras, occurred as Lucas was en route to his job as a dishwasher, according to police reports. The legal complaint, detailed by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, describes how Cole began “violently stabbing” Lucas numerous times, even as Lucas lay near the driver, pleading for help.

The surveillance footage reportedly shows that the driver, Marvin Scott, continued driving for at least four minutes before finally bringing the bus to a halt. During this time, for at least two minutes, Lucas attempted to reach the front of the bus, all while Scott drove down Paradise Road in Las Vegas. Scott later explained his hesitation to stop, citing concerns that Cole might escape and harm others, or that Lucas might run into oncoming traffic, as reported by KLAS.

For two of those minutes, Lucas stumbled toward the front of the bus as Scott continued driving it down Paradise Road in Las Vegas. Scott later said he didn’t want Cole to flee and hurt somebody else, nor did he want Lucas to run out into traffic, according to KLAS.

“Let me off, let me off!” Lucas can be heard screaming on video in the front of the bus as Scott continued to cruise down the road, KLAS reports.

“It appeared that the driver had ample opportunity on multiple occasions to move over immediately to his right and park along the curb,” Robert Berkstresser, a transportation consultant with nearly five decades of experience, told the TV station.

“Why was he not let off the bus?” asked Donniesha Lucas during her interview with KLAS in March 2023. “He didn’t deserve that.”

In his family’s legal complaint, their lawyers wrote that Scott “knew or should have known that a physical altercation was likely to occur” after he heard Cole “verbally accosting” Dominique Lucas prior to him attacking him. “Yet [Scott] failed to take action to prevent the assault and/or promote safety on the bus,” the complaint concluded.

A spokesperson for Keolis confirmed to KLAS after the stabbing that Scott didn’t open the bus doors due to the risk of the victim or passengers running into traffic. Keolis did not respond to Law&Crime’s requests for comment Thursday. They also said that the bus would not have been able to move if the doors were opened.

The Lucas family’s lawsuit accused RTC and Keolis of “failing to employ adequate safety measures to protect passengers and the public, despite being repeatedly informed about the dangerous environments on their buses, including, but not limited to, numerous prior incidents involving assault, battery, weapons, physical confrontation, violence, death, and use of illicit drugs known to be associated with violence.”

Cole, who is charged with open murder with a deadly weapon, is scheduled to go on trial in September for the alleged attack. Prosecutors have said that they intend to seek the death penalty, should Cole be convicted.