Man Sets DC Bus Rider On Fire: “White Equality”

Washington DC’s NBC affiliate reports:

A D.C. man says he was taking a Metrobus to the Anacostia Metro Station when a stranger set his shirt on fire. “Crazy, you know,” Eric Walton said. “Like, I never even spoke to that guy.”

Walton says he was on the way to the library with friends on the A4 bus around noon Nov. 2 when he felt a strange sensation. “I smelled something burning, felt something warm, felt something hot, looked over to my shoulder and noticed a fire,” he said.

“He laughed about it, and then afterwards, he slammed his fist against the glass and said, ‘Trump for president, white equality,’” Walton said. Prosecutors identified the alleged attacker as Derek Palmer. After he was taken into custody, he attacked a police officer and has been in jail ever since, investigators said.

Read the full article.

UPDATE: The victim writes to advise us that contrary to my earlier post, his assailant is not white, but is a 38 year-old black man. The victim adds that he believes that his assailant presumed him to be a white supremacist Trump supporter, hence the mocking shout after setting his shirt on fire.

Shocking video shows a man lighting another Metrobus rider’s shirt on fire on a Metrobus. https://t.co/UVkDWOCXO6

— NBC4 Washington (@nbcwashington) January 11, 2025