Man suspected of shoving London woman into path of a bus is arrested

LONDON – Nine years after a male jogger shoved a woman into the path of an oncoming bus on a busy bridge in London, the authorities said on June 15 that they had made an arrest.

The Metropolitan Police had said in 2018, a year after the attack, that all leads had been exhausted and that it was closing the investigation after at least two men were arrested, then released without charge.

But in a sudden turn, the Metropolitan Police announced on June 15 that its officers had arrested a 44-year-old man on suspicion of attempted grievous bodily harm.

The police said the arrest was in connection with an episode on May 5, 2017, in which “a woman was pushed into the path of a bus on Putney Bridge in Putney”.

The man, whose name was not released, remains in police custody. The police did not describe a motive for the attack.

The 33-year-old woman, who also remains unidentified, fell backwards and hit her head on the pavement, narrowly escaping more serious injury after a bus driver saw her and swerved into the opposite lane on the bridge, which crosses the River Thames in London.

Surveillance video shows the jogger passing a man in a business suit.

Seconds later, at about 7.40am local time, he abruptly and violently shoves the woman. He immediately runs off, as passengers from the bus rush to help the woman, who suffered minor injuries.

Surveillance cameras captured the male jogger about 15 minutes later running on the other side of the bridge and ignoring the victim when she confronted him.

“The victim was put in extreme danger when she was knocked into the road,” Sergeant Mat Knowles, the investigating officer from the Putney Safer Neighbourhood Team, said in a statement in 2017. “It was only due to the superb quick reactions of the bus driver that she was not hit by the vehicle.”

The video was widely shared online in August 2017. The police published it under the hashtag “Road-rage jogger” and appealed to the public for information.

The footage was viewed millions of times and drew outrage, with many faulting the police for not finding the man. Some on social media had suggested raising money to establish a local team to investigate the case.

At the time, the suspect was described as a white male in his early to mid-30s, with short brown hair and brown eyes.

An American private-equity executive who was living in London was arrested in connection with the case, but he was released when he proved that he was abroad at the time that the woman was shoved.

The Metropolitan Police said it had looked into leads involving more than 50 people over the course of the investigation, but that it had stalled.

On June 15, the spokesperson said the investigation was continuing. NYTIMES