Milwaukee school bus driver punched; 20-year-old woman accused
Danielle Dobbin
MILWAUKEE - A 20-year-old Milwaukee woman is accused of punching a school bus driver on the city's northwest side. Danielle Dobbin now faces charges of physical abuse of an elder person-intentionally cause bodily harm and disorderly conduct.
According to the criminal complaint, police responded to a battery 911 call on Wednesday, Nov. 6 to the intersection of 91st and Acacia Avenue on Milwaukee's northwest side.
When officers arrived on the scene, they spotted a school bus and made contact with the driver. The driver stated she was in the bus with two young children "when a black four-door car passed by her on the right side, but then stopped in front of the bus, and began to back up towards the bus," the complaint says. When the bus driver honked her horn to alert the driver of the car, the driver of the car "got out of their car and began to yell at (the bus driver)," the complaint says. The bus driver told police she is not allowed to reverse the school bus without permission from dispatch, so she did not move the bus.
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The complaint says the driver of the car walked up to the bus, yelled at the driver, opened the driver's side bus door, and threatened to take the bus driver's purse. When the bus driver moved the purse, the complaint says the car driver "swung a closed fist at (the bus driver)." The bus driver said the car's driver did this multiple times. The complaint says the bus driver "was still strapped into the driver seat by her seat belt, unable to move away from the strikes."
When the car driver stepped away, the bus driver closed her door and "felt fear for her safety and those of the children on the bus," the complaint says. The bus driver called her dispatch and described the driver of the car and what happened.
The bus driver later directed officers to the driveway where she saw the car driver enter her vehicle. When officers went to that location, they spoke with the defendant, Danielle Dobbin. Dobbin told police the bus was traveling closely behind her -- and "stopped behind Dobbin within 2 feet of the rear of her vehicle," the complaint says. Dobbin said the bus driver refused to back up the bus. The complaint says Dobbin "stated that she struck (the bus driver) on the face once with her left fist, and that the incident would not have happened had (the bus driver) locked the driver side door."
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Police collected surveillance footage from the school bus "which depicted the school bus traveling eastbound in the 8900 block of W. Acacia Avenue when a black four-door sedan passed the bus on the right side at a high rate of speed," the complaint says. Later, Dobbin "is seen opening the bus driver's door striking (the bus driver)," the complaint says.
Dobbin was scheduled to make her initial appearance in Milwaukee County court on Friday, Nov. 8.