Minneapolis school bus driver on leave after man gets on, slashes seats, performs sex act

Minneapolis police are looking for a man who allegedly slashed several seats and performed a sex act Thursday morning on a school bus carrying as many as nine children.

The bus was on its regular route about 7 a.m., picking up students on the way to Seward Montessori School, when the man boarded at a regular stop in south Minneapolis, police said.

Here's what police said happened next:

The 25-year-old bus driver, who had been on the job less than a month, told police that he initially thought the man was a student. The suspect, wearing a backpack and a hooded sweatshirt with the hood up, headed to the back of the bus.

When the suspect got off the bus a short time later, the driver got a closer look and realized that the passenger was actually a man in his 30s or 40s. The driver went to the back of the bus, where he found three seats slashed by a sharp object and evidence that the man had performed a sex act.

The driver then called radio dispatch, and police were alerted.

No students were hurt, police said. It's unclear whether any of the students was aware of what happened.

"Sometimes when things happen on the bus, we don't feel like it's a schoolwide issue," he said. "It was a bad situation, but it was contained to that bus."

The bus driver works for Minneapolis & Suburban Bus Co., which contracts with Minneapolis public schools to transport thousands of students, Alleyne said. He was removed from his route on Thursday and banned from driving district routes Friday, said Alleyne, who added that he believes the bus company has put the driver on administrative leave.