A heated argument among several women riding a GoRaleigh bus turned violent in Raleigh Friday, leaving two women with knife wounds after the group spilled off the bus onto West Peace Street. Police say one of the women pulled out a knife during the confrontation and cut the other two before officers took her into custody.
According to WRAL, the dispute began while the women were still aboard the bus on Friday. Once they got off at the West Peace Street stop, the confrontation escalated and one woman produced a knife, cutting two others before the group could be separated.
The two injured women suffered only minor injuries, the outlet reports. Raleigh police said the woman accused of wielding the knife was taken into custody and is expected to face charges, though the exact charges have not been detailed in what authorities have released so far.
A Transit System Already Under Scrutiny
Friday's altercation adds to a string of violent incidents that have put GoRaleigh's downtown operations under a spotlight this year. In August, a person was stabbed at the GoRaleigh bus station near Moore Square on a Friday afternoon and was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, per the same outlet's reporting. Raleigh police said officers had responded to an altercation between two people just after 1:15 p.m. in that case.
That stabbing came amid a broader pattern of calls for service near the downtown station. The report notes Raleigh police logged 1,580 calls for service in the area between Feb. 1 and Aug. 19, including eight aggravated-assault reports — one involving a gun and six involving a knife.
City Moved to Fence Off a Trouble Spot
In response to those safety concerns, the City of Raleigh announced plans in August to close a breezeway near the downtown GoRaleigh bus station, with fencing at the Wilmington Street breezeway leading to the Moore Square bus station expected to go up by Aug. 25, the article states. Raleigh police and GoRaleigh officials said at the time that the goal was to cut down on loitering in the corridor and funnel more foot traffic inside the station itself.
GoRaleigh is a heavily used system, serving roughly 14,000 to 17,000 riders a day across about 65 buses, according to the same report.
Other recent GoRaleigh incidents have drawn separate scrutiny, including a March report that four people were at large after a gun went off during a fight on an occupied GoRaleigh bus, according to CBS17. A separate CBS17 report from 2024 described a stabbing during a fight at a downtown GoRaleigh bus station on South Blount Street. It is not established whether either incident is connected to Friday's altercation on West Peace Street.
