A man pushed, grabbed, and choked his granddaughter at a downtown public bus station in Nashville in the latest incident related to criminal activity associated with WeGo, WSMV reported.
Metro Nashville Police Department arrested Kevin Figgins, 58, on Monday. He is charged with domestic assault with bodily injury, and his bond has been set at $1,000, according to Davidson County court records.
A patrolling officer at the 400 MLK Jr. Boulevard bus station was alerted to the fight, WSMV reported. The victim’s grandfather physically attacked her after a verbal fight, confirmed by security camera footage viewed by the officer.
Figgins has previously been found guilty of multiple thefts, criminal trespassing, and several revoked driver’s license offenses, according to court records.
This makes for the sixth incident related to criminal activity at a WeGo location since May 16 when police arrested convicted felon Kenneth Johnson, 31, for allegedly shooting an 18-year-old on the steps of the WeGo building at Rep John Lewis Way and MLK Jr. Blvd.
BREAKING: Convicted felon Kenneth Johnson, 31, is in custody for the 5:50 p.m. shooting of an 18 yr old man on the steps of the WeGo building at Rep John Lewis Way & MLK Jr Blvd. Johnson dropped his gun after an MNPD officer working at the bus station ordered him to. pic.twitter.com/P2z8ZkGz2x
— Metro Nashville PD (@MNPDNashville) May 17, 2024
On Sunday, MNPD arrested a known criminal for allegedly following, touching, and exposing himself to a woman at the same bus station where Figgins allegedly assaulted his granddaughter.
Police arrested Jacob A. Boswell, 31, for allegedly stabbing a homeless man on May 30 at the WeGo bus stop in Nashville’s Edgehill community. The homeless man, 63, suffered life-threatening injuries and was rushed to treatment at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Before that, Dejuan Prime allegedly shot a man three times on May 24 at another WeGo station. On May 20, a woman allegedly stabbed a WeGo bus driver multiple times with a kitchen knife, WKRN reported.
In an online survey posted to X by Fox 17 News, 83 percent of 400 respondents said they do not feel safe on Metro Nashville’s public buses. It should be noted that the nature of the survey precludes it from necessarily being statistically significant or an accurate representation of public opinion.
Metro Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell announced his plan for a transportation referendum entitled “Choose How You Move” about one month before the string of attacks began. If Metro Council approves and subsequently implements the plan by voters in November, the nearly $7 billion plan would raise the Nashville sales tax by a half-cent and invest heavily in the city’s public bus system.
The plan includes 24/7 public transportation, possible bus-only lanes, and additional bus stations across Nashville.
Nashville Tea Party Founder Ben Cunningham has criticized O’Connell’s plan as illegal under the state law that allows for local governments to hold referendums on mass transit plans, economically unsound because inflation will hide the true cost of the plan, unwise due to Nashvillians’ perception that buses are unsafe, and based on outdated transportation technology.
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Matthew Giffin is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Matthew on X/Twitter.
Photo “WeGo Transit” by WeGo Transit.
…..you ride a WeGo bus only to get strangled.