MTA pulls 4 bus fare agents off the job after video shows clash with a Brownsville school dean on the B14

The MTA has pulled four bus fare inspectors off the job while it investigates a confrontation in which a Brooklyn school employee says he was beaten after getting off a B14 bus. MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said Thursday that he had watched video of the encounter and that "there were aspects of it that were concerning," amNY and Gothamist reported.

The four agents belong to the MTA's EAGLE teams (short for Evasion and Graffiti Lawlessness Eradication), unarmed civilian inspectors who check for proof of payment on buses and at bus stops. They have been taken out of service pending the investigation, Lieber said.

What happened

The rider, Kyle Taylor, works as a dean at Mott Bridges Academy, a middle school in Brownsville, according to amNY and ABC7. Taylor said he was stopped by an EAGLE team on Oct. 6 as he tried to get off a B14 bus at the Rockaway and Pitkin avenues stop, Gothamist reported.

According to his lawyer, Taylor had paid with his debit card on the B15, where his trip began, and boarded the B14 with a paper transfer. When agents asked for proof of payment, he told them his card tap would only show the first bus. He declined to show ID and tried to leave the bus instead, amNY reported.

Security camera video from a nearby store, which amNY obtained, shows two agents blocking Taylor's path and pinning him against the bus, then several agents struggling with him and pushing him against a bus shelter. Gothamist said the video shows the four agents slamming him against the shelter and wrestling him to the ground. A summary of the NYPD complaint says one of the agents told police Taylor "fell out of the bus," according to Gothamist.

His lawyer told amNY that Taylor suffered a concussion and injuries to his head, neck, back and left shoulder, and that he has not been able to return to work. Taylor told ABC7 he briefly lost consciousness. He plans to sue the MTA, amNY reported. Police arrived, called an ambulance and have not made any arrests or filed charges against the agents, Lieber said.

What the MTA says

NYC Transit President Demetrius Crichlow said the encounter was "not indicative of the level of professionalism that we see or expect." He said the unit has about 350 fare enforcement officers who deal with tens of thousands of riders a day and get de-escalation training, Gothamist reported. Lieber said the MTA is working closely with the NYPD to find out how the encounter turned physical, according to amNY.

EAGLE agents can issue summonses for fare evasion but cannot detain or arrest anyone, Gothamist noted. Riders caught without paying can get a $100 ticket, ABC7 reported.

The free-bus fight

Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who campaigned on making buses "fast and free," seized on the video. The city does not oversee EAGLE teams, but "no New Yorker should be concerned for their safety over three bucks," deputy press secretary Jeremy Edwards said in a statement, adding that such encounters "would not happen in the first place if bus fare was eliminated."

Lieber, who reports to Gov. Kathy Hochul, pushed back at a press conference at Bryant Park. One "unfortunate physical conflict" between a rider and MTA employees "doesn't mean you get rid of fare payment," he said, according to Gothamist.

The stakes are large. The MTA collected close to $630 million in bus fares in 2025, and the city's Independent Budget Office estimated in June that fare-free buses would cost just over $1.1 billion a year by 2027, Gothamist reported. The MTA says fare compliance in the subway has climbed to about 90%, but that for every bus rider who pays the $3 fare, another does not, according to ABC7.