A cellphone video circulating on Facebook shows the staff of a local restaurant helping to remove a potentially dangerous passenger from a VTA bus in downtown Morgan Hill.
The video, captured during the May 14 incident by an unidentified motorist whose passenger can be heard talking on the phone to a 911 dispatcher, shows Art Nazzal, owner of Mr. Falafel restaurant, using one of his crutches to try to subdue a man who was threatening the driver of the VTA’s “68” bus.
Two of Nazzal’s staff members helped, attempting to grab the man and pull him out of the bus. One of the Good Samaritans, William Lawrance, eventually made his way into the bus’s back door and shoved the irritated passenger out onto the street.
The three restaurant staffers were standing on Monterey Road next to the bus, near the open front door, during most of the incident depicted on the video.
Nazzal said he was just arriving to work at his restaurant, located at 17455 Monterey Road, Thursday afternoon when he heard some commotion aboard the VTA commuter bus, which was stopped in traffic.
“I looked over, and this dude was trying to stab the driver,” Nazzal said Friday. “I was yelling at him, and telling him to get off the bus.”
The man then grabbed a handheld window-cleaning squeegee and threw it at Nazzal, who responded by hitting the suspect with one of his crutches.
After Lawrance went into the VTA bus via the back door, the suspect grabbed a crowbar stored on the bus to pry open door and windows during emergencies, and threatened to use it as a weapon, Nazzal explained.
“My employee shoved him off the bus,” Nazzal said.
The video then shows the passenger running south on Monterey Road with an object in his hand.
Morgan Hill Police Capt. Jerry Neumayer said officers caught up with the suspect a few minutes later. The man, who police have not yet identified, was detained for a mental health evaluation but was not charged with a crime.
“We didn’t want anybody to get hurt,” Nazzal said. “We were just trying to help the (driver).”
