VIDEO: Brawl breaks out with knife-wielding man on LA bus

Jory Rand Image
Friday, May 20, 2016
VIDEO: Brawl breaks out with knife-wielding man on LA bus
A knife was pulled during a fight that broke out on the Metro Orange Line bus in Los Angeles.

NORTH HOLLYWOOD, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A violent brawl broke out on a crowded Metro Orange Line bus in North Hollywood, and a knife was pulled in the middle of the melee. The incident was all caught on camera by witnesses.

The fight erupted on the moving bus as it headed to the North Hollywood station at about 3:25 p.m., according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

One of the combatants pulled a knife, according to witnesses.

"I got nervous, my heart started beating, but I was more focused on capturing the moment, the video," witness Orlando Romero of East Hollywood said.

Romero captured the fight on his cellphone camera, and said the brawl began after a man claiming to be from Chicago was drunkenly harassing a man seen standing in the video. Romero said the drunken man was the one with the bloodied face in the video.

As the fight quickly escalated, Romero said the bus driver frantically honked the horn to alert police.

"I did kind of freak out when I saw the guy's blood and it was splattered all over the floor and the side of the door," Romero said.

All the men involved in the fight managed to get off the bus at the North Hollywood Metro station.

It was there that sheriff's deputies with the transit police unit caught up with the man accused of pulling the knife and arrested him. Another man with him was also arrested and taken into custody.

Deputies said the men could face charges of assault with a deadly weapon.

The man who deputies said had the knife had to be taken to the hospital for injuries suffered during the fight. Officials said it did not appear that anyone was injured by the knife.