DC Woman Confronts Teens Over Foul Language, Gets Assaulted And Pushed Off Metrobus

A Washington, D.C., Metrobus traveler's horrifying experience was captured on video and she hopes that officials will ensure no other rider is met with the same fate. Kyla Thurston was heckled, assaulted and pushed off the bus by a mob of teenagers Monday.

The woman was attacked for asking the teens to stop using expletives in front of children, WTOP reported. Moments before, Thurston had given up her seat for another woman who boarded the bus with her kids.

"I wouldn't want, you know, no one else to have to go through this – it's emotional just thinking about it," Thurston said Wednesday while detailing the ordeal.

The group of teens turned violent after Thurston confronted them about their language out of concern for the young children on the bus.

"At that point, the kids became unruly. They started being disrespectful, like saying things to me," Thurston told Fox5 DC.

The video obtained by the outlet shows a group of Black teens and possibly some young adults, brutally assaulting Thurston as she lay on the floor of the bus and pushing her out after it arrived at a stop.

Thurston who was standing near the door tried to resist for a few minutes despite being shoved by multiple teens at the same time, the video shows. At one point, she was on the floor, holding onto the door for support. She reportedly gave up after one of the teens pulled at her top.

"Then next thing you know, there were objects being throw [sic] at me, and I was just like, 'Thank You, Lord,' because throughout the whole incident the only thing I could recall was the kids hitting me and kicking me - and I had no defense," Thurston told the outlet.

She also blamed the bus driver for inaction. "The bus driver made no attempt to stop the bus. He didn't alert local authorities or anything to my defense," she said. "Even after I'm yelling at the top of my lungs, 'Stop the bus – let me off the bus,' the bus driver never stopped," Thurston added.

The woman to whom the victim offered her seat filmed the attack, and also said the mob threw bottles at Thurston. One of the witnesses told Fox5 they saw the teens trying to choke the woman. Thurston was later seen sitting on the road with her jacket torn.

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) didn't send out a definitive response when asked about the role and responsibilities of the driver involved. The statement sent to the outlet said that Thurston was contacted personally by Metro's General Manager to extend apologies for her experience.

The incident left her with bruises on her arm, ripped clothes, and an injured neck. As seen in the video, Thurston was being held by the neck when the mob tried to shove her off the bus.

Thurston said this incident will not stop her from taking the D.C. Metrobus. "I'm going to continue riding Metro because - like I said - I don't fear nobody but God," she told the reporter.

When quizzed on the matter Wednesday, Mayor Muriel Bowser, who hadn't viewed the viral clip, said that the police force must assist and patrol Metro and its properties to keep the city safe.