BELCHERTOWN — A woman who allegedly threatened and attacked bus passengers with a knife was ordered held without right to bail Thursday.
Brietta Brown of Northampton pleaded not guilty in Eastern Hampshire District Court to assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, disturbing the peace and two counts of attempted murder. She was ordered held pending a dangerousness hearing scheduled for May 9 in the same court.
Brown, who turned 26 Thursday, allegedly threatened and attacked bus passengers with a knife, “slashing” two people’s throats on a Pioneer Valley Transit Authority bus Wednesday afternoon in Hadley, local police said.
The two injured people, along with the bus driver, were taken to Cooley Dickinson Hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening, police said.
Hadley police received a 911 call from PVTA dispatch services at 4:12 p.m., according to a post on the police department’s Facebook page. The caller told police multiple passengers on the bus had disarmed the knife-wielding passenger, but were still struggling.
Police responded to the bus, which was stopped on Route 9 in the area of Friendly’s, and immediately took the suspect, identified as Brown, into custody.
Two passengers were cut and suffered injuries to their throats, according to police. The injured passengers reported that the suspect, Brown, had slashed both of their throats with the knife in an unprovoked attack.
Police said the driver of the bus helped disarm the suspect and received minor injuries to his hands with the knife. As officers arrived, the driver began to suffer from chest pain and police said he, too, was taken to the hospital.