Los Angeles Metro board member says she’s ‘afraid,’ will not ride alone

Tony Kurzweil
·2 min read
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A Los Angeles Metro board member says she is “afraid” and would not ride on the city’s public transportation system alone.

The comments were made during a board meeting Thursday where the transit agency’s Board of Directors declared a public safety emergency.

“I will not ride our transit system by myself. I am afraid and I sit on Metro, but I will not ride it,” Board Member Kathryn Barger said.

  • Police tape at the scene of a stabbing that left one woman dead at the Studio City Metro stop on April 22, 2024.
    Police tape at the scene of a stabbing that left one woman dead at the Studio City Metro stop on April 22, 2024. (KTLA)
  • Mirna Soza Arauz is seen in an image provided by a family member.
    Mirna Soza Arauz is seen in an image provided by a family member.
  • The Los Angeles Police Department arrested 45-year-old Elliot Tramel Nowden for the random stabbing and murder of a woman on a Metro B Line train approaching the Universal City stop. The incident occurred on April 22, 2024. (KTLA)
    The Los Angeles Police Department arrested 45-year-old Elliot Tramel Nowden for the random stabbing and murder of a woman on a Metro B Line train approaching the Universal City stop. The incident occurred on April 22, 2024. (KTLA)
  • 2 vicious stabbings on L.A. buses in less than 24-hours
    L.A. Metro passenger stabbed on bus on April 13, 2024. (ANG)
  • 2 vicious stabbings on L.A. buses in less than 24-hours
    Blood-covered hand of a L.A. Metro passenger who was stabbed seen here as paramedics carefully take him off the bus on April 13, 2024. (ANG)
  • Authorities posted this image of a man suspected of attacking a bus driver in Los Angeles on April 13, 2024. (Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department)
    Authorities posted this image of a man suspected of attacking a bus driver in Los Angeles on April 13, 2024. (Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department)

The comments come as a series of violent attacks this month have left a trail of bloodied victims hospitalized and one woman dead on Monday in Studio City.

In that incident, 67-year-old Mirna Soza Arauz was stabbed in the throat by a man with a pair of kitchen knives. The suspect, 45-year-old transient Elliot Tramel Nowden, has been charged with murder and is facing life in prison if convicted.

Earlier this month, on April 13, a bus driver was stabbed by a passenger in Willowbrook on the same day another man was stabbed in the Silver Lake neighborhood in unrelated incidents.

These violent attacks prompted the emergency meeting by the Board of Directors Thursday, where officials agreed to retrofit its buses with shatterproof glass barriers around the transit drivers.

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Several other safety measures were also approved, including an increase in the number of security cameras and implementing facial recognition technology.

The Board said it may also look into the possibility of banning problematic individuals from Metro altogether.

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