Police investigate arrest at Dudley station

Transit Police are investigating the way a woman was arrested on a bus at Dudley station yesterday morning after she allegedly stole from another woman running a small pushcart at the station.

A four-and-a-half minute video of the incident shows the officer struggling with the woman in the back of the bus and then pulling out his gun as other passengers with phones crowd in for a better look.

The officer, who, like the woman, is black, has been put on an administrative assignment pending the outcome of a thorough investigation, according to Transit Police Lt. Richard Sullivan. However, Sullivan said today that an initial review of the incident says the woman is to blame for what happened - in a sequence of events before the video begins.

Sullivan said the woman stole items from a vendor's pushcart at the station. The owner of the pushcart found the officer, told him what had just happened and said she saw the thief board a bus. The officer brought the victim on the bus, and she pointed to the woman as the thief, Sullivan said.

The officer told the woman she had to get off the bus, but she refused, he said. When the officer moved to take her off the bus, he said, the woman threw a liquid at him - which Sullivan said was apparently rubbing alcohol - then began struggling with him.

People turned on their cameras and began moving closer to the struggle, he said. The officer, in fear for his life, unholstered his gun, but never pointed it at anybody, in an attempt to get people to move back, he said. The measure worked, and he eventually re-holstered his gun, but the woman kept struggling until another Transit officer arrived.

Sullivan said the officer has a good record over his more than ten years of service - and that he volunteers to work at Dudley station.

The woman is scheduled for arraignment in Roxbury Municipal Court on Monday on charges of larceny and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon - the liquid - Sullivan said.

Transit Police currently face a federal lawsuit by a woman who claims she was beaten and pepper sprayed by T cops at Dudley after she complained about how they were treating another woman.