Bus passenger allegedly charges at driver

An Olympia woman was charged with a felony and a gross misdemeanor after allegedly charging the bus’s plastic divider, which broke the door and hit the driver when it broke.

Sabella Cassandra Barton, 26, was charged with third-degree assault and third-degree malicious mischief by the Thurston County Prosecuting Attorney on Aug. 24.

Olympia police arrested Barton on Aug. 19 after a reported assault on a transit bus, which had stopped near the intersection of Eighth Avenue and Chestnut Street.

The driver told police that a woman, later identified as Barton, was seated in the back of the bus when she suddenly “came charging through our clear dividers, breaking it off its hinges.”

“The door struck me on my right elbow,” the driver wrote in a witness statement, adding that he notified his superiors and called 911 after the incident.

The two other passengers who were also inside the bus declined to provide statements.

Police said surveillance video showed Barton seated in the rear suddenly charging toward the front, breaking glass that hit the driver. The driver could then be heard saying, “What was that?” as he held on to a panel of acrylic glass that came off the divider.

Barton was located near the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Jefferson Street. The driver positively identified her as the suspect. She was booked into the Thurston County Jail for third-degree assault and third-degree malicious mischief.