Ex-Bus Driver Convicted of Pulling Gun on Rider

A former driver of a DASH commuter bus has been convicted of pulling a gun on a passenger last fall, officials said.

Sixty-year-old Kell Bennie Osborne of Beverly Hills was convicted Tuesday of brandishing a firearm, carrying a concealed firearm and carrying a loaded firearm in a vehicle. He will be sentenced Monday to at least six months in jail, said Deputy City Atty. Gita Saigal-Isagholian.

According to testimony from two passengers, Osborne pulled a plastic bag with a gun from a small black purse when one of the men told him the sun visor was about to fall down, Saigal-Isagholian said. Osborne pulled over and ordered the man off the bus, along with a second man who witnessed the incident.

The men called DASH headquarters and contacted the LAPD. Police arrested Osborne at the bus yard in Vernon, where he had been ordered to return the bus, after they found a loaded .25-caliber semiautomatic gun in the trunk of his car. Prosecutors determined that Osborne had enough time to return the gun to his car after the dispute, Saigal-Isagholian said.

Osborne denied ever pulling a gun, and said he ordered the two men off the bus because he thought they wanted to rob him.

Although he was fired from his job the day of the incident, Osborne testified he has been working for the city of Santa Monica’s Tide bus, Saigal-Isagholian said.