COLONIE — A veteran police officer was allegedly assaulted while trying to get an unruly man off a CDTA bus on Tuesday, Feb. 11.
According to Lt. Robert Winn, police received a call from CDTA about the passenger, who allegedly urinated on the bus and spit at the driver.
Traffic Safety Investigator Brian Curran, a 43-year-old, 14-year veteran of the force, boarded the bus while it was stopped on Central Avenue outside Colonie Center.
“Without warning or provocation, the passenger attacked Investigator Curran by punching him in the face and wrestling him to the ground,” Winn said in a statement. “The passenger slammed Investigator Curran’s head into the wall and floor of the bus several times before assistance from a back-up officer, and a passing civilian, intervened.”
With the help of a Taser, the passenger, identified as 42-year-old Jason Vargas, who has an unknown address, was taken into custody.
Vargas did suffer minor facial injuries, Winn said, but “because of his behavior he was sedated by Colonie EMS” and taken to Albany Medical Center Hospital where he was being treated.
Curran sustained several contusions to the head and he was also taken to Albany Med.
Vargas will be formally charged when he is released from the hospital. The charges are not yet determined, Winn said.