Bus driver, Revere man in snowball fight in Lynn

LYNN – An MBTA bus driver was held without bail Wednesday after allegedly attacking and beating a man who was trying to get onto a bus in Central Square Tuesday night.Derek Smith, 40, of 23 Breed St., was arrested and charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, a shod foot; at 3:40 a.m. Tuesday. He pleaded not guilty to the charge Wednesday in Lynn District Court.”I just saw the bus driver wail on the guy, and I was pretty scared; I had never seen a fight before,” said witness Derianna DiRico, 17, of Lynn. “I thought the (alleged victim) had a black eye, but when the bus driver was coming back to the bus, the guy was following him, and it wasn’t a black eye, it was blood all over his face.”MBTA Transit Police reported responding at 11:25 p.m. Tuesday to Union Hospital emergency room to meet with the victim of an assault reported on bus 896, according to a report by MBTA Officer Christopher Mansur.Officers said the alleged victim, a 43-year-old Revere man, had a cut on his nose and on his forehead, and some swelling on his head. The alleged victim reported that at approximately 10:45 p.m. he approached the 896 bus and asked the driver for directions to the Route 426 bus.”He stated the bus driver immediately became belligerent and verbally aggressive, then charged off the bus and physically attacked him,” police reported.The alleged victim said he lost consciousness and could not remember all the details of the assault, “but he did remember being kicked in the head,” police reported.Medical staff initially said the alleged victim’s injuries were more consistent with a fall than a kick to the head. Police also noted the alleged victim smelled of alcohol but appeared alert and coherent and had no slurred speech. (The alleged victim told police that he “had a beer” at 5 p.m., according to court documents.)But while police were still at the hospital, staff diagnosed the alleged victim with internal bleeding between the brain and skull caused by traumatic brain injury and indicative of a blow to the head.Smith told police he was stopped in Central Square when a white man began yelling at him and pounding on the door and windows of the bus. Smith allegedly opened the door and told the man he could only board at a bus stop.”Smith stated that the male then threw a snowball at him, at which time Smith ?lost it,’ and exited the bus to follow the male,” Mansur reported.Smith allegedly told police the alleged victim hit him first in the back of the neck when Smith turned to go back to the bus, but “Smith’s statements to me then became vague and inconsistent,” Mansur said.Smith allegedly admitted he “probably did” kick the alleged victim and said video footage would show “the scenario I just described to you plus a little more.”A witness told police he was walking to the commuter rail station when he saw Smith on top of a white man “pounding him,” according to the report. The witness reported Smith stopped and turned back to the bus when the alleged victim tried to hit Smith in the back. Smith turned around and allegedly continued the beating, “knocking (the alleged victim) to the ground, and then (Smith) stomped on the white male’s head with his foot,” police reported the witness said.DiRico said the alleged victim appeared drunk during the incident and was pounding on the windows so hard she thought they were going to break. She said Smith first put his hands on the alleged victim – pushing him away from the bus – but she didn’t see who threw the first punch. But she said it didn’t seem the alleged victim was fighting back, and he was left in the snowbank.”The bus driver got on the bus, wiped his knuckles on his pants, and started driving off,” DiRico said. “The other customers were yelling so loud it was hard to hear.”Essex Assistant District Attorney Andrew Boyd requested Smith be held without bail pending a dangerousness hearing. Boyd also requested that Smith’s bail be revoked in an open case out of East Boston. (Smith is