The attacker who allegedly stabbed a Brooklyn MTA bus driver in a broad-daylight fit of rage last month was charged with attempted murder – but walked free because a grand jury did not indict him in time, according to cops and prosecutors.
Malachi Houston, 27, was arrested July 8 and charged with attempted murder for allegedly knifing a 60-year-old operator in the neck on board a B99 bus at Pitkin and Alabama avenues in East New York a month earlier, authorities said Monday.
But Houston was ultimately cut loose because a Brooklyn grand jury did not indict him within the established 6-day timeframe, the DA’s office said.
“Prosecutors presented evidence to the grand jury which took no action,” a spokesperson for the DA’s Office said in a statement. “The investigation is ongoing and additional evidence may be presented to the grand jury.”
The violence erupted when Houston flipped out over the “direction of the bus,” sparking a heated argument at 11:30 a.m. on June 8, police said.
Houston and the driver got into a scuffle, witnesses said — which ended with the suspect stabbing the operator, according to cops and law enforcement sources.
The assailant got off the bus and ran off – before his bleeding victim was transported by EMS to Brookdale University and Medical Center, where he was listed in stable condition, cops said.
“There was a fight between the bus driver and a passenger,” a witness who wanted to remain anonymous told The Post at the time. “They were fist-fighting. They finished fighting, [the suspect] opened the back door, and he started running.”
Blood stains could be seen on the floor near the door, while smears of blood coated the glass partition surrounding the driver’s seat.
Houston, who lives in the neighborhood, has three prior arrests, including one from May for criminal possession of a controlled substance, and a March bust for possession of a forged instrument, police said.
He was also arrested in 2017 for grand larceny, according to cops.
A bus operator who identified himself as D. McClain pushed for the city to offer “more protection” for drivers.
“A man comes to work to do his job and the public sometimes is out of control,” McClain said shortly after the attack. “You got emotionally disturbed people riding the bus, and you can’t determine how they will react.
Two more bus drivers were attacked in the city in unrelated incidents the day before, police sources said.
A female bus driver in East New York was riding a B6 bus when she was hit at around 11:30 June 7 by a passenger who said she missed her stop.
A short time later, a bus driver on a B44 bus at New York and Foster avenues was assaulted with a liquid after asking a passenger to roll up her stroller before she boarded the bus around noon, the sources said.