San Francisco police announced Thursday that they arrested a suspect in connection with several attacks inside Muni buses, including the egg attack caught on camera in February.
Police began looking into the attacks after a video was posted on social media showing a man, now believed to be 44-year-old Joseph Benjamin, throwing eggs at a passenger inside a bus on Feb. 16.
The incident began when Benjamin allegedly was yelling racial slurs at an Asian woman inside the bus. A bystander interfered and told Benjamin to stop. That’s when the suspect threw an egg at him before fleeing and throwing a second egg at the bus, police said.
Through their investigation, police determined Benjamin was involved in at least two other incidents also on Muni buses.
After watching the egg attack video, an Asian woman came forward and told police that while on a bus on Dec. 25, 2022, the same suspect threw food at her and “made derogatory comments about her ethnicity and gender,” police said.
Benjamin is also being accused of attacking an Asian Muni driver who told him to get off the bus on Feb 13. for allegedly spitting on another passenger and using threatening language.
Police spotted Benjamin in the 500 block of Jones Street last Friday and took him into custody.
He is charged with two counts of battery committed against a transportation worker or passenger, and two counts of hate crime, police said.
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
