Minneapolis police are looking for a man who allegedly slashed several seats and performed a sex act Thursday 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. The 25-year-old driver, who had been on the job less than a month, told police 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.
The district notified the parents of the students on the bus shortly after the incident, said district spokesman Stan Alleyne. Officials delayed alerting all Seward parents until Friday, Alleyne said, because they didn't want the message to get lost among the alerts sent out Thursday during the gas fire in south Minneapolis.
The bus driver works for Minneapolis & Suburban Bus Co., which contracts with Minneapolis public schools, Alleyne said. He was removed from his route 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.
COREY MITCHELL and SARAH LEMAGIE
