Police arrest suspect who allegedly spat on, attacked Muni passenger

San Francisco police arrested a 22-year-old man who allegedly spat on and attacked a Muni bus passenger, police said Wednesday.

The altercation took place last Saturday around 10:35 a.m. at Market and Drumm streets. When officers arrived, the male victim was sitting inside the bus with injuries from the incident. Police called for medical services to treat the victim.

Police said the victim was sitting inside the bus when the suspect attacked him in an unprovoked argument. That’s when police said the victim was spat on by the suspect and punched several times, which caused fractures to the victim’s face.

The victim was able to grab the suspect’s hair during the assault and the suspect stopped attacking the victim. Police said the suspect exited the bus and boarded another bus.

Police were able to identify the suspect as Jacob Burton after reviewing the bus surveillance footage.

Officers arrested Burton on Tuesday at around 9:16 a.m. on Turk Street. Burton was booked on for assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated battery causing serious injury and inflicting great bodily injury.

Last week, there was a report of another incident aboard a Muni bus when an operator was attacked for telling three passengers to wear a mask.

Jerold Chinn

Jerold serves as a reporter and San Francisco Bureau Chief for SFBay covering transportation and occasionally City Hall and the Mayor's Office in San Francisco. His work on transportation has been recognized by the San Francisco Press Club. Born and raised in San Francisco, he graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in journalism. Jerold previously wrote for the San Francisco Public Press, a nonprofit, noncommercial news organization. When not reporting, you can find Jerold taking Muni to check out new places to eat in the city.