A man leaped onto the bus yelling, "Shut the door."
The first shot rang out as driver Paul Batson pulled away from the curb. In the rear-view mirror, he could see a man running down Saratoga Street brandishing a handgun.
The gunman had been chasing the passenger.
Now, he was chasing the bus.
At least six shots were fired as the lumbering Mass Transit Administration bus picked up speed, witnesses recalled. Bullets pierced two windows, but none of the 20 passengers was struck. A girl screamed and fell to the floor, scared but not hurt.
The shooting at Bus 9043, which took place at 6:15 p.m. on a
weekday last month at Saratoga and Gilmor streets in West Baltimore, left passengers and the driver badly shaken.
"It was frightening," said Mr. Batson, 43. "I've had rocks and bottles thrown at the bus, and you get over that. When they start shooting, that's terrible."
He fared better than Michele Holley, a bus driver who was shot in the leg last October by a passenger in the Forest Park neighborhood.
The shootings offer harrowing examples of how violent crime has spilled from city streets into the region's public transit system.
Leading the onslaught are youngsters, generally between the ages of 12 and 15, who terrorize passengers and MTA employees with abusive language and threatening behavior. Last year, the MTA police for the first time arrested more juveniles than adults, 140 to 133.
The growing problem has led the MTA to take the unusual step of calling on community leaders from every neighborhood along the Central Light Rail Line to convene tomorrow night to explore ways to combat youth crime.
"While there have been acts of violence on transit systems in the past, they have been of a minor nature," said John A. Agro Jr., the MTA's administrator. "What's happening now is a lack of respect for authority, and it's spilled over from the street onto our system."
Bus crime soars
The number of crimes reported annually on MTA buses has more than doubled, to 2,036 last year from 929 in 1989, during a period when ridership has slowly fallen. However the rate actually declined slightly from 1992 to 1993.
Statistics based on ridership show that light rail crime has grown faster than the fledgling system has expanded. During the last half of 1993, after the two southernmost stops were added, 539 crimes were committed on light rail, making its per-passenger crime rate the worst of all the transit modes.
In response, the MTA has embarked on a campaign to reduce crime. More undercover officers are riding on the systems, and ++ patrols have been increased in the afternoons, the peak period for problems.
The agency has set up a hot line offering rewards of up to $1,000 for information about crimes against passengers, property or employees. Callers' identities are confidential.
The MTA plans to hire 22 officers, beefing up its recently reorganized uniformed force by filling 14 vacancies and adding eight new positions to bring the force to 121 officers by March 1995.
"Put as many officers as you want in the system and it still wouldn't prevent random acts of violence," said Mr. Agro. "We need to be more creative to find solutions to these problems."
The MTA plans to involve 20 organizations in tomorrow night's meeting at the World Trade Center. This summer, the agency will offer 10-week jobs to young people to expose them to career opportunities and role models.
"A passenger shouldn't have to worry they have five minutes to fight some juveniles before the next stop on the light rail," said Maryland Transportation Secretary O. James Lighthizer. "We have to get the surrounding communities to believe that this is their system and their property that's being threatened."
Among Baltimore's transit system, Metro is the only one with a downward crime trend. The subway system experienced 1,014 incidents of crime last year, a 26 percent drop from 1,378 incidents in 1992.
Most of the crime the MTA's police force investigates is not violent. Neither a passenger nor an MTA employee has ever been slain on an MTA bus or train.
Of the 3,909 crimes reported by the MTA police last year in the city and suburbs, only 416 were what the agency classifies as the "serious" category of robberies, assaults and vehicle theft.
Teen-agers blamed
Officials blame teen-agers for the majority of vandalism, theft, fighting and the harassment of passengers. The problem often peaks in the late afternoon when schools let out and students can ride on passes issued to them by the city school system.
"What law says we have to raise someone else's child?" said Vidius Franklin, an MTA bus driver with 11 years' experience. "A lot of people are scared. These kids are very disrespectful, and you don't know which child might be packing a piece."
Theodore Robb, a 29-year veteran driver, says he worries every time his MTA bus is swamped by large groups of teens. "What makes anyone think if you have a rowdy kid at school, he's going to be any better when he gets on the bus?
"The first day they lower the police presence at Mondawmin, you're going to have problems," said Mr. Robb, referring to his fears of tension at the MTA's Mondawmin transfer point. In September, about 300 teen-agers brawled after school at Mondawmin Mall, and the incident sparked a crackdown by police.
People are scared
Royce Blackwell, a Northeast city resident, said he witnessed the beating of an elderly man by a group of teen-age girls on a bus last month. The incident was never reported to MTA police, but Mr. Blackwell insists it was typical of the threat posed by young toughs.
"You should ban the kids," he said. "People are getting scared to catch the bus."
The Rev. Walter C. Powis Sr., pastor of Lansdowne Assembly of God, was returning by light rail on March 4 from an event at the Baltimore Arena with two sons and a 4-year-old grandson when a group of black teens began taunting white passengers. When the train reached Westover, the youths got off, then pelted the train with rocks, breaking several windows.
"It was sheer panic on board," said Mr. Powis. "It could have gotten nasty. I was very fearful."
No one was seriously hurt. MTA police arrested six youths, ages 12 to 14, and charged them with malicious destruction of property. One faces an additional charge of assault for allegedly throwing a rock at a passenger's head.
Suburban police departments are also looking at how juvenile crime has flowed into some neighborhoods served by light rail. Shoplifting has tripled at the Yorkridge Shopping Center in Lutherville since a Light Rail station opened there two years ago. Similar problems have been reported at the Cromwell Field Shopping Center across from Light Rail's Glen Burnie station.
"These are petty crimes, but even one or two incidents can be very significant to some of the low-crime communities along light rail," said Capt. Gary L. Barr, commander of the Anne Arundel County Police Department's Northern District.
Nationwide statistics on transit crime are not kept, and evidence of a national trend is mixed. Authorities in New York recently announced that subway crime there fell 11 percent last year and was down more than one-third since 1990.
Baltimore is not the only city where troublesome youths are causing problems. The number of juveniles charged with disorderly conduct on the Washington Metrorail and Metrobus systems grew from six in 1991 to 36 last year.
Ridership down
There is heightened concern within the MTA that the growth in crime could hamper efforts to attract and retain riders, particularly suburbanites who aren't dependent on transit. Since the MTA has lost 28,400 daily riders, an 8 percent drop.
"It makes it very difficult to market new services or find new customers," Mr. Agro said. "How can I run an advertising campaign to get people to try a service that is convenient and friendly when all they hear is about violence being reported on the system?"
The MTA's image suffers after incidents such as the February beating of a 45-year-old Ruxton stockbroker who, until then, had been a regular light rail rider.
On the train, a fellow passenger had propped his legs on an adjoining seat, and the stockbroker sat on them. When the midafternoon train stopped at the Falls Road Station, the young man assaulted him on the platform. The Ruxton resident suffered cuts, scrapes, two black eyes, and required six stitches in one cheek. He said he was too frightened to fight back.
"There's a lawlessness on light rail that's indescribable," said the broker who asked not to be identified.
"There's a general feeling of insecurity on the thing unless it's rush hour."