Lettie Robinson sat in her small West End boarding house room Monday night with tears in her eyes, her neck in a brace, her arm heavily bandaged, her wounds undebatable as blood seeped from the cloth.
Robinson, who has for some time used a walker due to a spinal condition, was injured Sunday night in an incident with a MARTA bus driver who, by all accounts, didn't want to stop. Robinson, 62, held on to the bus door until she fell to the side of the road. Moments later, the driver fled the scene, according to police.
The driver, 52-year-old Belinda McMillian, has since been arrested and charged with reckless conduct.
"She didn't stop when she saw me holding on," said Robinson, whose speech has been slurred due to strokes suffered in recent years. "I hit that cement and I felt pain all over my body ... Thank God I didn't go [under] the back wheel."
Her speech impairment has led to confusion about what happened after Robinson realized she had left her purse on the bus around 10:30 p.m. Sunday at the intersection of Joseph E. Boone Boulevard and Mayson Turner Road in northwest Atlanta.
Police and witnesses say Robinson's arm became stuck in the front doors as she tried to retrieve her purse. Robinson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that she banged on the doors, asking the driver to open the door, and that she held onto the bus once it began moving. McMillian told authorities that Robinson knocked on the bus doors and then ran alongside the bus before tripping and falling in the street.
Authorities say Robinson was dragged about 63 feet before, according to a witness, a car swerved in front of the bus, forcing McMillian to come to a stop, said Atlanta Police Department spokeswoman Kim Jones.
“The MARTA bus driver stopped the bus and opened the door,” Jones said. “The victim fell to the ground and rolled in front of the MARTA bus.”
While the details are under investigation, authorities said McMillian didn't stop for the injured woman.Jones said the MARTA driver “drove around the victim and left the scene.”
Robinson said she was taken to Atlanta Medical Center for treatment Sunday night. Police later located McMillian at the West Lake rail station with help from a MARTA route supervisor, Jones said.
McMillian was released Monday from the Fulton County Jail on a $1,000 bond.
MARTA spokeswoman Cara Hodgson told the AJC that McMillian has been placed on administrative leave while the transit authority "is conducting a full internal investigation" into the incident. She did not say how long McMillian had been with MARTA. McMillian maintains a current commercial driver's license, according to the Georgia Department of Driver Services.
"Safety and security are MARTA's highest priorities and we take this incident very seriously," Hodgson said. "We will take appropriate administrative action at the conclusion of this investigation."
Robinson, who is recovering in her roughly six-by-10-foot boarding house room, said she wishes no ill toward the driver who left her on the road. She cried again when learning that McMillian was taken to jail.
"I don't want that woman in jail. I don't want to hurt anybody," she said. "Even though what she did to me, I pray for her."
Staff writer Mike Morris contributed to this article.
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