CTA employee facing felony charges

A newly-fired CTA employee who allegedly body-slammed a bus passenger in a video that went viral last month is now charged with a felony in the case.

Prosecutors charged 46-year-old Milan Williams with aggravated battery in a public place. The CTA on Tuesday fired Williams and another bus driver who is seen in the video.

Milan Williams | CPD

The incident began around 2 a.m. on June 11 when the victim battered another bus driver during an extended dispute outside a bus on the 7700 block of South Western Avenue, according to a CPD report. Williams intervened in the altercation by picking the victim up and slamming him onto the pavement, according to prosecutors and the widely-circulated video.

The video begins with the victim apparently squaring off with the other driver, fists readied. That’s when the second driver, identified as Williams, walks into frame and picks the man off the ground and slams him down.

“You better get your ass home, boy,” the second driver says.

Gregg Smith, Williams’ defense attorney, said the victim was able to walk two miles to get home after the incident, and the victim didn’t call police for two days.

Williams had been a CTA bus driver for five years and had never been disciplined by the transit agency, Smith said. The victim and the other driver were in an “extended” fight, and Williams was “acting in defense of others,” according to Smith.

Judge David Navarro released Williams on his own recognizance.

Yesterday, a man named Lawrence Madden identified himself as the victim in the case.

“I’m going through pain right now, I can’t sleep, I got headaches, depression, paranoid, thinking that somebody’s coming after me,” said Madden in a report aired by ABC7. “I don’t even want to get on the bus because I feel threatened.”

Madden said the dispute began when the driver of a bus he was riding stopped to talk with another driver who was traveling in the opposite direction, ABC7 reported. 

According to Madden, he wanted the driver to get moving so he could get to his stop.