A man who complained about getting kicked off a NYC bus will be going back to prison for 15 years for shooting up a Brooklyn bus stop after a group of MTA fare enforcement inspectors asked him to pay the $2.75 fare, a judge ruled Tuesday.
Samuel White, 52, fired 10 shots at a group of four inspectors with the MTA’s Eagle Team on April 18, 2023, grazing one in the calf, because they booted him from a bus in Starrett City.
The inspectors told them he could pay his fare at an MTA kiosk and catch the next bus a few minutes later, but White fumed that they “ruined his life” and made him late for work, and that he “might as well kill himself,” according to prosecutors.
Except he tried to kill the fare evasion team instead.
White, a former convict, walked behind a tree near the bus stop at Flatlands Avenue and Louisiana Avenue in Starrett City, pulled a loaded .45-caliber pistol from his backpack, and started shooting.
One bullet grazed an Eagle Team, Patrick Daley, in the right calf while Daley tried to take cover behind the kiosk.
“I’m feeling relieved that we got him, and justice was served today. We were only doing our jobs. Nobody should lose their lives doing their jobs,” Daley said outside the courthouse Tuesday.
Select Bus Service routes require riders to buy paper tickets at bus stop kiosks. White had a MetroCard, but no ticket, when the inspectors confronted him on the B82 SBS bus.
That morning, Daley said, his partner approached White and asked for his ticket, and he said he had a monthly MetroCard but didn’t swipe it — so they asked him to step off the bus and swipe his card.
White eventually got off the bus, but “he wanted us to hold the door because he didn’t want to be late, and we explained to him that the bus runs on a schedule,” Daley recounted.
“He walked around the corner, came back with a firearm …. I told him to stop, you know, don’t come any closer, and he just started to shoot at us,” Daley said.
The other three members of the team took cover as White started shooting.
Much of the incident was caught on video. Cops arrested White, who lives about three blocks from the shooting scene, a day later. He admitted to the shooting after being shown video from the bus.
White pleaded guilty to four counts of attempted murder on March 23. Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Adam Perlmutter handed down the sentence Tuesday.
“These inspectors showed up to work and asked a man to pay $2.75. He responded by pulling out a gun and firing 10 rounds, striking one inspector and narrowly missing three others,” Brooklyn D.A. Eric Gonzalez said .”Today’s sentence makes clear that violence against transit workers will not be tolerated in Brooklyn.”
White has served three previous stints in state prison, including a 2004 assault conviction for stabbing an acquaintance with a knife, according to prosecutors. He was also sentenced to 16 years to life after a 2014 weapon possession conviction, but that conviction was overturned four years later after a ruling that the gun entered into evidence should have been suppressed.
NYC Transit President Demetrius Crichlow praised the sentence, and the quick work of police catching White.
“We’re here for justice. And 15 years, a 15 year sentence, is justice. It shows that system itself recognizes the importance of our workers,” he said outside court Tuesday.