Last Tuesday a “youth” carrying a large knife boarded a bus in the Italian town of Mestre, just outside of Venice. The following video features a description by the driver of how he handled the situation. He doesn’t mention the ethnicity of the knife-bearer, but various news stories describe the unruly passenger as an “Asian”.
Many thanks to HeHa for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes and RAIR Foundation for the subtitling:
Below is an English-language article from ANSA about the incident in Mestre:
Bus driver threatened by man with knife
(ANSA) — ROME, JAN 18 — An Italian bus driver was threatened by an Asian man with a knife in Mestre near Venice Tuesday night, sources said Wednesday.
The man was clearly high on something, they said. The driver pretended that his vehicle had suffered a fault that stopped it from leaving. He then phoned the police and they arrested the man.
He has been charged with reckless behaviour and aggravated threats.
Video transcript:
| 00:00 | The adrenaline is still flowing over what happened last Tuesday, in the evening. | |
| 00:04 | But the driver is fine, and doesn’t feel like a hero, | |
| 00:07 | This is what Giuseppe Mazzone, a driver working for ACTV [Venice transport company], stated. | |
| 00:11 | He succeeded in getting a man — armed with a big knife — arrested. | |
| 00:15 | He had got on the #31 bus line, in Mestre. | |
| 00:19 | I am so glad I did it, because I would have never been able to forgive myself, | |
| 00:24 | if I had driven him to the Mestre downtown, dropping him off where the crowd is. | |
| 00:31 | And there would probably have been much worse consequences for someone. | |
| 00:35 | It worked out in the end, and I thank the police station of Mestre, once again. | |
| 00:41 | It happened on Tuesday, at 7 pm. | |
| 00:44 | I saw a man getting on the bus through the back doors, and coming towards the driver’s seat. | |
| 00:52 | While he was approaching, I saw some passengers rushing | |
| 00:57 | to get off the bus, but without arousing alarm. | |
| 01:02 | When he came to the driver’s seat, I saw he was holding a big knife. | |
| 01:07 | I started the bus, because I wanted to get out of there. | |
| 01:13 | I left in order to take the individual away from the crowd | |
| 01:18 | that was waiting for the bus, at the railway station. | |
| 01:22 | While I was driving to the outskirts, which are not crowded, | |
| 01:27 | I managed to call the police station in Mestre. | |
| 01:32 | During the ride, the driver simulated a bus engine failure. | |
| 01:38 | He would keep staring at me, because he was a couple of meters away. | |
| 01:42 | He was urging me to keep driving. | |
| 01:45 | I told him “Sorry, mate, as you can see the bus is stuck and I cannot restart it”. | |
| 01:51 | He didn’t know law enforcement were on their way, in the meantime. | |
| 01:58 |
Give that driver a metal. Smart thinking and brave and good hearted.