UM Police Seeking Two Suspects After Anti-Trump ‘Bodyslam’ Attack on Bus
University of Montana Police have released photos and are asking for the public’s help in identifying two men who reportedly attacked a bus as they disembarked near UM housing at the Lewis and Clark Village on South Higgins Avenue.
“We got a report of disorderly conduct on one of the UM transportation buses,” said UM Police Captain Ben Gladwin. “A bus driver called her supervisor and her supervisor in turn called us to report an incident that occurred on October 19, at around 2 o’clock in the morning as two passengers had become disorderly.”
The situation happened just hours after President Donald Trump was in Missoula for a rally out near the Missoula International Airport, though these men were on the opposite side of town, they apparently assumed the bus had something to do with Trump.
“Who knows why, but they decided on their own that possibly the bus had been picking up Trump supporters and they were upset about it," Gladwin said. "One of them, after exiting the bus, picked up a tree branch and threw it at the bus. The other passenger body-slammed the front of the bus… who knows exactly why, but that action did actually stop the bus, but I have no idea what their intention was in doing that.”
The body slam apparently did very little damage to the bus. Though the driver of the bus was not singled out and threatened herself, Gladwin said it is “completely reasonable for anyone to see this incident as threatening.” Anyone with information about the bus attack is asked to call UM Police at 243-6131.