LAUDERDALE LAKES, FL (Boca Post) (Copyright © 2025) — A bus ride through Lauderdale Lakes turned ugly fast for a 70-year-old woman who’d only just settled into an ADA seat. This was late Tuesday, Oct. 21, somewhere along the stretch of West Oakland Park Boulevard where the ride jolts a bit and people shift on their feet.
BSO’s Violent Crimes Unit says another rider started pestering her almost right away. The woman was standing, swaying with the bus, bumping into the victim again and again. At some point the victim asked her to back up a little, give her room. That’s when the argument lit up.
Detectives say the standing woman pushed her weight into the victim several times — on purpose. Then she grabbed a grocery bag and cracked it across the victim’s face. The victim tried to shield herself with her cane, but it didn’t stop the other woman from punching her in the head, hard and more than once.
For a few seconds it was chaos before other people stepped in to try and help.
Several riders pulled them apart and got the older woman out of the corner she’d been stuck in. The bus driver saw enough, stopped the bus near the 4100 block of West Oakland Park, and opened the doors. The attacker — along with another woman who’d been with her — bolted out and took off before anyone could hold them there.
Deputies and rescue crews were called. The victim had a bruise swelling on her forehead but didn’t want to go to the hospital; she just wanted off the bus.
BSO has released the surveillance video from inside and is asking anyone who recognizes the attacker, or the woman who left with her, to call Violent Crimes Unit Detective Andres Lopez at 954-321-4915 or send a tip through the SaferWatch app. Anonymous tips can go to Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS, or online, or just by dialing **TIPS from any cellphone. A tip that leads to an arrest could earn up to $5,000.
