A magistrate judge banned a woman from El Paso’s public transit system for her alleged involvement in a wild brawl aboard a Sun Metro bus.
The havoc — caught on social media video — appeared to involve two older women fighting with a 77-year-old man on Tuesday afternoon, Oct. 28, on the Dyer Brio bus as it arrived at the Sun Metro Five Points Transfer Center, according to a prosecutor at a bond hearing for one of the women and city spokesperson Tammy Fonce.
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Sonia Gil, of the Riverside area of the Lower Valley, was arrested on a charge of injury to an elderly person and appeared at a teleconference bond hearing on Thursday, Oct. 30, from the El Paso County jail in Downtown.
Sun Metro services about 20,000 daily boardings on weekdays, Fonce said. The extended Brio buses run along rapid transit routes on four key corridors — Dyer Street, Alameda Avenue, Mesa Street and Montana Avenue.
Sun Metro mayhem in Five Points
It is unclear what precipitated the mayhem recorded on cellphone video shared by Channel 14-KFOX, which starts with bus riders screaming at each other and an argument apparently underway.
A Sun Metro has about 20,000 boardings daily on weekdays in El Paso. A Sun Metro bus is seen at the Downtown Santa Fe Terminal in this file photo.
“I’m not getting off,” a gray-haired woman repeatedly screams in the video, after a man with a goatee beard and a red long-sleeved shirt tells her to exit the bus.
The video shows a woman with reddish curly hair and glasses — who allegedly appears to be Gil — allegedly hit the 77-year-old man, who has on a red T-shirt, in the face as havoc erupts. They begin to struggle. They both fall as the man grabs near her neck. A gray-haired woman jumps in and appears to bite the man on the top of his head before her wig falls off as they wrestle. A cane is swung. Someone is hit with a bag.
“Mire la, mire la, (look at her) she’s biting him,” someone said on the video. “Auxilio, auxilio,” a woman yells in Spanish for help as other riders scream. The two women fighting with the man at one point claim the man attacked them. “What the hell is wrong with you lady?” a man comments.
Assistant District Attorney Rifqa Calhoun said at Thursday’s hearing that the man had “obvious injuries.”
Violent assault in public transportation case
Whether anyone else besides Gil was charged was unclear.
Photos on social media showed two women taken away by police in handcuffs. Gil is not the woman who appears to bite the man in the video.
El Paso Police Department spokesperson Detective Judy Oviedo, following a request for information on Thursday, Oct. 30, did not say if anyone was arrested, nor provide the names of the persons arrested, only stating in an email that officers responded to an aggravated assault at 1:51 p.m. on Tuesday at the Sun Metro Five Points Transfer Center, 2830 Montana Ave. next to El Paso police headquarters.
Sun Metro ban too harsh?
During the hearing, Magistrate Judge Antonio Aun agreed to lower Gil’s bond from $25,000 to $5,000. As part of the release conditions, he ordered that she wasn’t allowed on any Sun Metro buses.
No one should be “wrecking this kind of havoc in a bus,” Judge Aun said, later adding, “I just don’t want you on Sun Metro buses, period. Got to find another way to get around, but no Sun Metro. Thank you.”
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Gil responded that she doesn’t have any other mode of transportation.
“Judge, that’s a little bit harsh, no? Sun Metro is the only public transportation,” public defense attorney Maya Quevedo chimed in, adding that the defense could move to try to remove the bus ban at a later hearing.
Aun disagreed that his restriction was too tough. “I can’t have you (Gil) on buses assaulting individuals, ma’am,” he said. Gil remained jailed as of Thursday evening.
Daniel Borunda may be reached at dborunda@elpasotimes.com and @BorundaDaniel on X.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: El Paso woman banned after Sun Metro bus brawl video