A young Winnipeg mother believes surveillance footage is the only thing that kept her out of the hot seat now occupied by a Winnipeg Transit driver charged with assaulting her.

Caley Fawcett, 17, says that a verbal altercation over her late request for a transfer escalated to the point that punches were thrown. And though it was the driver who called police, the 51-year-old woman is facing assault and public mischief charges because police were able to view, and listen, to videotape of Wednesday morning’s incident.

“If there was no video, they probably wouldn’t have believed me. Thank God for the video because I probably would’ve been the one to get charged. They probably would’ve believed her side,” Fawcett said Friday.

“I’m still in shock from what happened; how she hit me. For nothing. Over a transfer. Who the hell hits somebody over a tiny piece of paper?”

Fawcett boarded a route 12 bus at William Avenue and Tecumseh Street about 10:30 a.m., with her nine-month-old son Jharrell and a 20-year-old male cousin. They were headed to Walmart on Empress Street to run a quick errand.

Jharrell was crying when they got on, so she sat down to comfort him. A few minutes later he went to sleep so she put him in his stroller and left him with her cousin while she went up to the front to ask for a transfer. Fawcett said she explained her situation, but the driver said it was against company policy and eventually told her to “go sit down or get the hell off the bus.”

Fawcett said she cursed to herself and then went back to her seat. But the driver soon started yelling, ‘Never in my 25 years as a bus driver have I been verbally assaulted.’ The Filipino Fawcett called the white driver a racist. The bus was stopped around Sargent Avenue and Valour Road and Fawcett was told to get off the bus. Which they almost did.

“As I was walking to the door, she’s like, ‘I feel f—ing sorry for your son.’ I turned around and said, ‘What? You feel sorry for my son, and that was when she just punched me in the face. Swung at me.”

Fawcett said she got into it with the driver, grabbing at her face and knocking her glasses to the ground. She then picked them up and gave them back to the driver, who she says repeatedly told her to get off the bus while striking her with an open hand. As she tried to leave, her stroller jammed and the driver kept hitting her in the back with the gate door and then backhanded here in the head.

“So I turned around and punched her in the face and her nose started bleeding.”

After completing the errand, the group took a taxi home. Fawcett’s mother called 311 in the early afternoon, and Fawcett gave them a report. Then the police called back on her mom’s cellphone and spoke with Fawcett. She later gave them a statement and said she wanted to press charges.

The driver had called police to say she had been physically assaulted. Winnipeg police believe it was the driver who started the altercation after the verbal altercation. She was released from custody on a promise to appear in court.

Fawcett said she would like an apology and is considering legal action.

kevin.king@sunmedia.ca