A 30-year-old man is facing felony aggravated assault and three misdemeanor charges after he allegedly pulled a sharp object from a purple suitcase and threatened a female passenger aboard a WeGo bus in Nashville. The confrontation happened on the Number 6 bus line, which was stopped on Lebanon Pike, after the woman asked him to return a passenger's dropped earbuds.
According to WKRN News 2, the woman had been riding the Route 6 bus on Sunday when another passenger dropped their earbuds and she asked Djeni Bofaka to return them to their owner. Arrest documents state that Bofaka instead pulled a sharp object from a purple suitcase and threatened the woman, prompting Metro police to board the bus. Witnesses told officers that Bofaka placed the object back inside the suitcase before police arrived. Officers later located it in the suitcase's open pocket and, per Metro police, identified it as an alleged crochet needle.
Bofaka was arrested and booked on one count of felony aggravated assault along with three misdemeanor charges, including theft of property. His bond was set at $12,500. WKRN News 2 reports it will continue updating the story as new details emerge.
A Pattern of Legal Trouble in Davidson County
Court records reviewed by the Davidson County Criminal Court Clerk show this is not Bofaka's first brush with the local justice system. He was previously charged in Davidson County in May 2019 with felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a case that ended in June 2021 when he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor bodily injury assault and received an 11-month, 29-day suspended sentence.
Under Tennessee Code Annotated § 39-13-102, intentionally or knowingly committing an assault while displaying or using a deadly weapon is classified as a Class C felony, punishable by three to 15 years in prison and fines of up to $10,000, according to Justia Law. Tennessee law broadly defines a deadly weapon based on how an object is used or displayed to threaten bodily harm, meaning a crochet needle could meet that legal threshold if prosecutors can show it was brandished as a weapon. Separately, simple assault under Tennessee Code Annotated § 39-13-101 is a Class A misdemeanor, carrying up to 11 months and 29 days in jail and fines as high as $2,500, per the Brooks Law Firm.
Route 6 and WeGo's Ongoing Safety Push
The bus involved runs along WeGo's Route 6, or Lebanon Pike, which connects downtown Nashville to Hermitage through Hermitage Avenue, linking riders to both Donelson Station and Hermitage Station, according to Moovit. WeGo operates a fleet of 180 fixed-route buses carrying roughly 30,000 daily passengers across Metro Nashville and Davidson County, a system that includes more than 700,000 annual student trips through Metro Nashville Public Schools.
This incident lands amid a broader push by city leaders to shore up safety on Nashville's transit network. In February 2025, Mayor Freddie O'Connell and MNPD Chief John Drake appointed Captain Brian Williams as the department's first permanent transit liaison to build a dedicated Transit Police Unit for WeGo, and the Nashville MTA Board approved a 67% increase in security officer staffing hours that same month, launching mobile patrol units to monitor buses and stops. WeGo also maintains a network of more than 283 security cameras across its bus fleet and facilities, technology that regularly records interior passenger aisles and boarding areas.
Not the First Weapon Incident on WeGo's Network
Along the same Route 6 corridor, WeGo is building a new Donelson Transit Center, a project estimated at $13 million to $15 million that will include security cameras, climate-controlled waiting areas, and real-time digital arrival displays, as Donelson's new transit hub plan has detailed. Weapon-related violence has surfaced elsewhere on the system before: in May 2025, federal prosecutors announced a five-year prison sentence for a 44-year-old man who fired a gun at a WeGo bus station on Dickerson Pike following a physical altercation in January 2024, a case prosecuted under the federal Project Safe Neighborhoods initiative. Despite the recent investments in staffing, cameras, and infrastructure, onboard altercations continue to test the safety of Nashville's bus riders and drivers alike.
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