L.A. Metro employee stabbed to death at downtown rail station

LOS ANGELES, CA - JULY 20: People wait for the blue line at the 7th Street Metro Center on Monday, July 20, 2020 in Los Angeles, CA. Officials reported 2,848 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases on Sunday as hospitalizations have reached a new high. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
Passengers wait at a 7th Street station platform in July. A Metro worker was fatally stabbed Friday at the station in downtown Los Angeles, officials said. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)

A Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority worker was fatally stabbed Friday night at a downtown rail station, officials said.

The stabbing occurred Friday at 10:46 p.m. at the 7th Street/Metro Center subway station, one of the busiest in the system, police said.

After a "verbal dispute" on a Red Line train, a woman believed to be 25 to 30 years old "armed herself" and stabbed the Metro worker, the Los Angeles Police Department said.

Paramedics arrived at a platform that serves the Blue and Expo lines and took the victim to L.A. County-USC Medical Center, a Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman said.

The man, who had critical injuries to his chest, was pronounced dead at 11:23 p.m., Metro spokesman Rick Jager said. His name has not been released because his family has not yet been notified, Jager said.

The Los Angeles Police Department is investigating the stabbing as a homicide.

On Sunday, police released a wanted flier for the suspect in the stabbing. The flier uses two freeze-frame images from Metro's security camera system, showing a woman with long dark hair and a bright green bicycle.

Metro has a "zero-tolerance policy for criminal activity that impacts the safety and security of our transit patrons and employees," Jager said. He said transit officials would "work closely with our law enforcement partners to identify and aggressively pursue perpetrators and bring them to justice."

Metro Chief Executive Phil Washington said in an email to employees Saturday night that the victim had worked at Metro for more than 18 years, most recently in the rail operations division.

It was not clear whether the employee was on duty at the time of the attack, Jager said.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the victim’s family and fellow Metro employees," Jager said. He said the agency was "deeply saddened" by the incident.

Anyone with information about the attack is asked to contact the LAPD's Central Bureau homicide detectives at (213) 486-8700, police said.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.