On Wednesday (Oct. 19), Kyla Thurston spoke exclusively to local news station FOX 5 DC about a horrific experience she had while riding a bus in the city. The Washington, D.C. resident said on Tuesday (Oct. 18), she was savagely attacked by a group of teens for asking them not to curse.
Thurston told the news station that on the day of the incident, she gave up her seat to a fellow passenger who boarded with a young child. The victim said there was a group of unruly teens on the bus and she asked them to not use such vulgar language in the presence of the woman and kid. What happened next was shocking. “Then next thing you know there were objects being [thrown] 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,” she told FOX 5 DC.
While being attacked, Thurston begged the bus driver to stop so she could escape. “The bus driver made no attempt to stop the bus. He didn’t alert local authorities or anything to my defense. Even after I’m yelling at the top of my lungs, ‘Stop the bus — let me off the bus,’ the bus driver never stopped,” she said.
Once the bus driver did pull over at his next scheduled stop, the teens’ actions only got worse. Another passenger recorded a cell phone video of the unruly group physically assaulting the woman. They grabbed Thurston and beat and choked her before tossing her off of the bus.
She said that it was hard to watch, but she’s thankful that there was evidence of the unjustified attack. “Watching the video myself, personally, it startled me — and I’m still startled about it,” she told a reporter for the outlet. “I didn’t want to come forth at first, but I don’t fear nobody but the Lord,” Thurston added. The woman revealed that the incident won’t keep her off the bus, but hopes that more will be done in the future to protect passengers: “I’m going to continue riding Metro because, like I said, I don’t fear nobody but God.”