Video of murder of Charlotte bus driver another nightmare for Ethan Rivera’s mother

Even before disturbing video was released Friday of Charlotte bus driver Ethan Rivera being shot and killed while on his route in February, his mother Sylvia had already relived the nightmare.

She was told on Wednesday that it would be released to the media and was immediately concerned about Rivera’s two young children witnessing the incident. Ethan Rivera was killed last month by a single gunshot while on his route during a road rage encounter.

The video — close to four minutes long — shows Rivera and the driver of a Honda Pilot shouting and cursing at each other while stopped in traffic at a red light at Graham and West Trade streets in uptown on the night of Feb. 11. Moments later a bullet travels violently through the bus door and a shield inside the bus, hitting Rivera and killing him.

He was a father to two kids, a son and a daughter, and his mother has described his time as a bus driver in Charlotte as his “dream job.” He had worked for the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) for about a year and his murder while on the job has renewed calls from local public transit workers for the city to do more to increase safety and compensation for workers.

Rivera’s mother, already devastated by the death of her son, was angered further after watching the footage. CATS did not do enough to protect Rivera, 41, Sylvia Rivera said. Specifically, she wants the city to install bulletproof protective shields in buses.

The Charlotte Observer is not posting the video online due to its graphic nature. Prior to the city releasing the video to media outlets, Sylvia Rivera had already seen the footage.

“It was very hard. It was very difficult to watch,” Sylvia Rivera said of watching how her son was killed.

Captured from four different surveillance cameras aboard the bus, video shows the accused shooter driving a Honda Pilot, honking at Rivera’s bus while approaching from behind on Graham Street, near 5th Street.

Video captured from the front and left side of the bus shows Rivera attempting to merge into a lane to his left, where the Pilot also was. They pass through the intersection with the Pilot honking, briefly driving in the road median, and Rivera calling the driver “a clown,” before the Pilot cuts in front of the bus.

At West Trade Street, traffic stops at a red light and Rivera opens the bus door. The bus is in a left-hand turn lane, and Rivera stops it beside the Pilot, now to his right.

He yells at the driver — later identified by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police as Darian Dru Thavychith — and the driver yells back at Rivera several times, cursing at him.

When the light turns green, the Pilot speeds by and footage shows a single bullet pierce a divider between Rivera and the bus door.

Rivera instantly slumps over after being shot, and is motionless. The bus keeps moving, rolling slowly through the intersection before leaving the roadway and crashing into payment equipment at a parking lot, which alarms bus passengers who then realize Rivera was shot.

Rivera died the day after being shot on his route. The man Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police accuse of killing Rivera is awaiting extradition from Kansas. Thavychith, 21, was arrested at a gas station in Shawnee, Kansas, on Feb. 28, according to police in the Kansas City suburb. Thavychith will be charged with murder and shooting into an occupied vehicle, CMPD Capt. Joel McNelly said during a virtual news conference on March 1.

Rivera is the first CATS operator to be killed on duty according to the agency, but he isn’t the first to face violence.

Since 2018, 40 incidents of violence against CATS operators have been reported, according to data from the Charlotte Area Transit System. The number of cases reached a four-year high of 14 last year. There were 11 in 2020, seven in 2019 and eight in 2018.

A petition on Change.org in response to Rivera’s death calling for safety measures to be implemented within CATS, has received 1,688 signatures as of publication. Riveras mother, Sylvia, is one of the signators.

CATS addresses safety

CATS released an update Friday following the shooting addressing some of the requests made by the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, Transportation Union for added safety.

“The shooting of CATS bus operator Ethan Rivera was tragic and senseless. He was a public servant and did not deserve to be harmed in any way while performing his job duties. We continue to pray for Mr. Rivera’s family.” CATS spokesperson Krystel Greene said in a release.

CATS said as a short term action, CMPD has added patrols of the Charlotte Transit Center and bus routes that were requested by the union. And, CATS said the Department of Homeland Security Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response teams will make random visits to and patrol CATS facilities. The first of these visits occurred earlier this month.

As a long-term goal, CATS said it will add additional Allied Universal resources to bus facilities and routes. CATS said it is working with CMPD to provide deescalation training to operators and employees, and it is inspecting radios to identify equipment malfunctions.

“I have to live for the rest of my life that my son is dead by a driver that was driving recklessly anyway,” Sylvia Rivera said. “CATS has to live with (...) negligence of not implementing the right things for their drivers to be safer. That’s a bad look on them.”