Train Operator Bitten by Emotionally Disturbed Man After Intervening in Attack on Female Passenger

AUGUST 23—A Train Operator working the D line Friday night was bitten in the leg by an emotionally disturbed man after he intervened in an attack on a female passenger.

Train Operator Ellerbee, with seven years on the job, was quick to react when he heard a child’s cries and stepped out of his cab to see a crazed man yelling and lunging at straphangers while aboard the train near the Stillwell Avenue station in Brooklyn.

“I heard a kid say ‘Driver, driver’. I stopped the train outside Stillwell,” said Ellerbee. “When I came out, he had the girl on the wall,” said Ellerbee, who described a woman being cornered while the man yelled “zombie-like words”.

“He backed off her and he lunged at me but he didn’t do anything. I told the guy sit the f down and don’t move. He went and sat down and I thought it was over.”

Ellerbee also comforted the frightened children aboard.

“A kid was crying,” remembered Ellerbee. “I said that’s alright, come here, come by me.” Ellerbee called control and brought the train into Stillwell, but the worst was yet to come. He stepped out of the cab to see a horrifying sight: the man was attacking the woman on the floor of the train.

“Once I dumped the train and was going out, he had her by the hair on the floor,” said the Train Operator. “I just intervened and kind of separated the two."

While stepping over the man, Ellerbee was bitten on the lower leg.

“It just happened so fast. I was wondering did he actually bite me?”

Luckily, Ellerbee’s work pants were thick enough to prevent the crazed passenger from breaking his skin, and both the Train Operator and the woman who was attacked had no injuries.

Ellerbee thanks Local 100 and Transit for arriving quickly, and was also grateful for the NYPD’s fast response.

“The cops were quick, quick, quick,” said Ellerbee. “Everyone did what they were supposed to do.”

But Ellerbee was the first to react, and played a crucial role in bringing the terrifying ordeal to a close.

“I thank Train Operator Ellerbee for his quick thinking and quick action, which prevented a bad situation from becoming worse,” said TWU Local 100 President John V. Chiarello. “His bravery is commendable.”