Ottawa police say a 26-year-old man has been arrested following several assaults on passengers travelling on OC Transpo vehicles Monday morning.
Police said on Monday that officers along with OC Transpo Special Constables were on scene investigating an “incident” at the Bayview LRT station at approximately 11 a.m.
In an update on Tuesday, police confirmed they were called after reports of an assault in progress involving “multiple” passengers on one of the LRT trains near Tunney’s Pasture.
It was later learned the suspect had assaulted four people while uttering “hate-filled” comments aboard various OC Transpo buses and trains between the Algonquin College and Bayview stations, police say.
All four victims sustained serious injuries, according to police, though Ottawa paramedics said Monday no one was taken to hospital.
A 26-year-old man from Ottawa was arrested on multiple assault charges, including for assault with a weapon, aggravated assault and assault causing bodily harm. He was also charged with five counts of mischief, possession of a weapon, uttering threats and fail to comply with a release order.
He is scheduled to appear in court at a later date.
The assaults caused delays along the Confederation Line, with trains only serving the westbound platforms at Bayview, Pimisi and Lyon stations. Regular service resumed at around 12:15 p.m., according to a memo sent Monday afternoon by transit services general manager Renée Amilcar.
“We continue to support Ottawa Police Service in their investigation and thank all our emergency service partners, including our Special Constables, who quickly arrived on the scene,” Amilcar said.
A video on social media purports to show a man on an LRT train being confronted by other passengers after allegedly assaulting at least one of them. It is unclear, however, if the individual in the video is the one whom Ottawa police arrested.
Investigators believe that there could be other incidents and are seeking further victims.
Police are also thanking the members of the public who stopped to render first aid to the victim at the scene.
An investigation is ongoing.