A veteran died on a bus. Security footage caught a man robbing him, Virginia cops say
A 20-year-old man in Virginia has been arrested after a security camera on a city bus captured him rifling through the wallet of a man who lay unconscious on the floor, according to police.
The man was later declared dead.
Damontea Chappell, 20, turned himself in at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday on petit larceny charges, the Richmond Police Department told McClatchy News. A funeral for the victim, 66-year-old Ray McKinley Bass, was held the day before, according to an obituary posted online.
Police responded at 11 a.m. Sept. 10 to reports of a passenger having a medical emergency on a Greater Richmond Transit Company bus.
The driver and all of the passengers — except Chappell — got off the bus after the incident was reported. Police said Chappell stayed on board and “acted as though he wanted to stay on and help the victim.”
Surveillance footage shows Chappell slouching in the seat of the empty bus before looking around. Police blurred the victim’s body, and only a white Nike sneaker is visible in the video.
“Pops,” he can be heard saying. “What you name is, pop?”
Chappell then asks, “Where’s your wallet at?”
The video shows Chappell then remove the victim’s wallet, take the cash that’s inside and stand up as if to leave. Police said he took about $200, WWBT reported.
Once officers arrived, police said they “found the victim unresponsive and not breathing.” He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Bass was a U.S. Air Force veteran who “enjoyed fishing, football, especially the Redskins, and spending time with family,” according to his obituary. WWBT reported he was on his way to a doctor’s appointment when he died.
“It’s already a very difficult time when you lose a loved one, but to find out that there was somebody who took that last piece of dignity from them, is extremely upsetting,” GRTC spokesperson Carrie Rose Pace told the TV station.
His niece Cassandra Bass called Chappell “scum of the earth” and a “bottom feeder” in an interview with CBS 6.
“Callin’ him pops as if he knew him,” she said, according to the TV station. “He wasn’t trying to help him at all. You could see he was actually kicking him to make sure he wasn’t moving and dead before he went into his wallet.”
Richmond Detective Greg Russell said Chappell acted like “a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” WRIC reported.
“I’ve been a police officer for 30 years and I’ve never seen anything like this,” Russell said. “This might take the cake. This is a vile incident that should not have happened.”
This story was originally published September 18, 2020 at 6:23 PM with the headline "A veteran died on a bus. Security footage caught a man robbing him, Virginia cops say."
