Last Updated on December 23, 2020, 5:37 PM | Published: December 22, 2020
UPDATED, Wednesday, 12-23-20, 5:30 p.m.
A rider on an EMBARK bus was stabbed by another rider as the bus neared the westbound stop at NW 63rd Street and Meridian Tuesday afternoon around 2:20 p.m.
Captain Jeff Spruill, watch commander for the Hefner Division of the Oklahoma City Police Department told Free Press the victim was still alive but in critical condition. He was transported to the OU Med Center for treatment.
Free Press learned Wednesday from police reports that the victim was Ronald Graham, 56, who lived not far from where the bus was when he was stabbed. Graham’s condition was last described by police as stable.
Also, Wednesday we learned from police reports that Nani Casses, 38, was arrested for the attack. Casses was booked on a felony-level charge of “assault, battery, or assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.”
From a tip, Casses was captured by police about 45 minutes later in an apartment complex about two blocks north of the intersection.
“Somebody in the apartment complex knew that he did not belong there, asked him what he was doing there, and he told them he lived there,” said Spruill. “And so he found that suspicious and called. Police officers went over there, found the subject in the complex, and ended up being our suspect for this crime.”
Spruill said that the suspect surrendered immediately and was being taken to the Oklahoma County Jail.
Witness
Free Press talked with one person who said he was a witness to the stabbing.
Shamar Boone who was riding the bus to where he lives further west told Free Press that he saw the stabbing.
“He [the victim] had just got off the phone telling his family that he’s gonna be home in just a minute,” said Boone. Boone said he thought at first that the attacker hit the victim in the back of the head.
“Then when he turns around and approach me he’s saying, ‘Are you with the 90s?’ with a knife in his hand,” said Boone.
Once the bus was stopped and the doors were opened Boone said he saw the attacker step off, drop the knife, and then calmly walk north on Meridian.
Boone saw the victim grabbed his own shoulder and start yelling “call 911!” He then fell.
Boone said he didn’t know what the attacker meant by asking if he was “in the 90s” and didn’t know who the attacker was.
He said the attacker dropped the knife when he got off the bus but Spruill said police have not recovered the knife. Police reports later said that the knife was eventually recovered.
We will continue to update this story as we gain new information.
Founder, publisher, and editor of Oklahoma City Free Press. Brett continues to contribute reports and photography to this site as he runs the business.
