The incident unfolded around 5 p.m. Tuesday when Thomas got on the W1 route, in the 4300 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SW near South Capitol Street SE and Interstate 295.

According to police, as Thomas walked toward the back of the bus, the driver started to pull away from the stop. She confronted him and asked “why he pulled off before she was in her seat.”

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The driver told her that he had not noticed that she wasn’t in a seat and that he “did not want to get into an argument.”

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That’s when, according to Metro Transit Police, Thomas “became disorderly and began cursing” at the driver and sprayed him with the drink.

The driver stopped the bus, and Thomas dropped the bottle of Sunny Delight and left the scene, police said.

She was found about a block away. Police said Thomas resisted arrest and tried to flee from officers.

She later “admitted to committing the assault,” according to Metro officials.

Thomas is charged with simple assault and resisting arrest. She also will be charged as a fugitive for an outstanding assault warrant in Prince George’s County, Metro authorities said.

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The bus driver declined medical treatment, the transit agency said.

Metro spokesman Dan Stessel said, “when a bus operator is assaulted behind the wheel, you’re putting everyone on the bus at risk.

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“This case demonstrates why we believe such assaults deserve stronger penalties under the law,” Stessel said in a statement.

Metro said there have been 63 assaults on bus operators this year. That’s compared with 51 for the same period last year. Most recently, a Metrobus operator was doused with a cup full of urine; another driver was spat on.

Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689, which represents most Metro workers, recently called for the agency to dispatch more police officers to buses throughout the system. “Transit assaults are at an epidemic level,” the union said in a statement.

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A new report by Metro Transit Police found that sexual harassment complaints and assaults on bus operators rose sharply in the first six months of 2017.

Union spokesman David Stephen said the latest incident — weeks after a woman allegedly threw urine on a bus driver who told her “Have a nice day” — was part of a larger problem that wouldn’t be solved until harsher penalties were instituted for such offenses.

“It has been open season on our transit workers,” Stephen said Wednesday. “It is going to be incumbent upon all the jurisdictions as well as [Metro] to work with us to institute effective penalties and effective protections.”