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CTA Rider Stabbed for Not Minding 'His Own Damn Business,' Woman Tells Cops

By Erin Meyer | June 17, 2013 4:08pm
 Natasha Butler, 41, is charged with stabbing a fellow passenger on the No. 77 Belmont bus in Lakeview.
Natasha Butler, 41, is charged with stabbing a fellow passenger on the No. 77 Belmont bus in Lakeview.
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Chicago Police

COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — A woman on a CTA bus in Lakeview allegedly stabbed a suburban man with a pedicure razor after he told her to "shut up or get off."

The victim told DNAinfo.com Chicago: "Yeah, I got stabbed on the bus. I should have kept my mouth shut, but what she did wasn't right."

Natasha Butler, 41, was riding the No. 77 bus along Belmont Avenue on Saturday when she got in an altercation with another passenger, according to Assistant State's Attorney Erin Antonietti.

The bus driver broke it up, separating Butler from the other female passenger.

After the woman who had been in the altercation with Butler ran from the bus, Butler attacked a second passenger before fleeing at the Belmont and Southport stop, Antonietti said. 

Cook County Judge Adam Bourgeois Jr. ordered Butler held on $250,000 bond when she appeared in court Monday on charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and aggravated battery in a public place.

The 35-year-old victim, who asked not to be identified, said it all started when he saw Butler "haul off and hit the lady in the face." 

When the woman who had been slugged ran from the bus, Butler proceeded to yell and cause a disturbance, he said.

"It was really annoying, so I told her to either shut up or get off the bus," said the victim. "So she starts threatening me. There was a lot of 'your mamas' involved ... and she's talking to me like she wants me to meet her in the parking lot after school."

He said the bus driver put the bus in park and walked to the rear to ask him to "stop escalating things."

"I walked away," the man said.

But as Butler was leaving the bus, the man said he made a comment.

"I don't even know what it was, but she just came charging at me," he said.

The woman allegedly shoved him; he pushed her back, the man said.

"I was swinging back because this lady is attacking me," he said. "Finally she stops and gets off the bus."

Blood was dripping from several small wounds and soaking through his clothes, said the wounded man. But he did not immediately realize he had been stabbed.

"I was dripping blood on the floor of the bus," the man said. "I didn't even know until a [another rider] said, 'Dude, I got video; she pulled a knife out and stabbed you.' "

He later learned that the woman's weapon was a small razor used in beauty salons to cut calluses from feet.

"It was so small, it didn't really do any damage," said the victim, who received four stitches and a tetanus shot later that night.

After her arrest Saturday night, Butler allegedly made admissions, telling police that she "threw out the knife, as she knows better than to keep a knife after someone is cut with it," according to court records.

She also allegedly told investigators that the victim "should have minded his own damn business and that he made her mad, so she stabbed him," Antonietti said.

Police brought Butler to the hospital where the victim was recovering for identification.

"She winked at me when they brought her in," the victim said.