Escondido bus driver stabbed multiple times during robbery

A bus driver was injured after he was stabbed multiple times in the torso and robbed Wednesday night at a transit center in Escondido, according to police.

The incident was reported around 8:50 p.m. when a 911 caller reported that a man was threatening people with a knife at the Escondido Transit Center on West Valley Parkway near Centre City Parkway, Lt. Ryan Hicks said.

While police were en route, officers received another call that said the man was now “actively stabbing the driver,” Hicks said. Police later learned the attacker had allegedly demanded the bus driver’s wallet before he began stabbing him several times.

The assailant then fled the scene before police arrived.

The bus driver was found wounded inside the transit center, according to investigators. He was treated by paramedics before being taken to a hospital with injuries believed to be non-life threatening.

Officers located the alleged assailant hiding behind a Barnes and Noble bookstore down the road.

The man fought with officers and ignored their commands, police said. Officers fired less-lethal sponge rounds — plastic bullets with sponges on the tips — at the man to help take him into custody.

Video evidence of the attack was given to investigators, and a knife was recovered near the scene, Hicks said.

Police said the man had a prior criminal history, including two previous convictions for assaulting Escondido officers.

The man was booked in...