Bus Driver Accused of Running Over, Killing Homeless Man Freed on Bail

A Los Angeles County bus driver charged with manslaughter after he ran his bus over a homeless man during a weekend altercation on Wilshire Boulevard was released from custody on Wednesday after posting bail.

Prosecutors this week charged Cruz Vaca with a single count of felony vehicular manslaughter. Vaca, 39, a driver for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, pleaded not guilty at a brief hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday. Until posting a $50,000 bail, he was being held in County Jail.

On Tuesday, police presented what they said were new details regarding the fatal Saturday evening altercation between Vaca and the homeless man, who has not been identified by the coroner’s office.

About 6 p.m. Saturday, Vaca was driving his MTA bus east on Wilshire in the Koreatown district. At a stop, the homeless man attempted to get on Vaca’s bus but was not allowed to board. Police said that the homeless man two weeks ago had been kicked off Vaca’s bus and that he had spit on the driver.

According to police and witnesses, when he was not allowed to get on the bus Saturday, the man stood outside the bus banging on the front doors. Vaca told him: “You are not going to get on my bus,” David Thompson, a passenger seated directly behind the driver, told The Times.

Frustrated, the homeless man then stood directly in front of the bus, trying to prevent it from leaving, police and Thompson said.

In an interview with police, Vaca allegedly said he wanted to drive away to end the argument with the homeless man. As he prepared to pull away, Vaca told police, he looked out his side-view mirror to check traffic and did not realize that the man had slipped and was lying on the street. Vaca told investigators that he began to drive his bus forward, then realized that he had run over the man.

Thompson, who said he also spoke at length to police, described the face-off between the homeless man and the bus driver as a “test of wills.”

“He was not going to let the bus go forward without getting on,” Thompson said.

Passengers could hear and feel several thumps as the bus began moving, Thompson said. After yelling at the driver to stop, Thompson ran out to see what happened. He found the man lying under the bus near the rear wheels, his pants nearly torn off. Thompson said the man was unresponsive and appeared to be dead.

Vaca never got off the bus, said Thompson. A woman at the scene called police, using her cell phone, he said.

Vaca was originally booked on a murder charge and jailed on $1-million bail. But police later said it would be very difficult to prosecute Vaca on a murder charge because it would be hard to prove that he intended to kill the man.

“It’s not like somebody heard the driver kick the guy off the bus and say, ‘I’m going to kill him,’ ” said Det. Tom Murrell, of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Vaca faces up to six years in state prison if convicted.