A Bronx man was sentenced to nine years in prison on Friday for violently attacking a passenger on an MTA bus last year during an argument about holding a door inside an apartment building, the Bronx District Attorney’s office announced.
Dayshawn Bannister, 29, was ordered to serve nine years in prison and five years post-release supervision by Bronx Supreme Court Justice Cynthia Isles after he pleaded guilty on Feb. 6 to second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault, and second-degree gang assault, court records noted.
The court gave Bannister’s co-defendant, Destiny Bryant, 25, a conditional discharge and ordered her to perform community service.
According to the investigation, the incident, which shocked residents in the Bronx’s Mott Haven neighborhood, unfolded at around 8:15 a.m. on Feb. 15, 2024. Bryant got into a heated dispute with Cheddie Defrietis, 38, over an apartment door not being held open at 869 East 147th St.
Shortly after the war of words, Bryant followed Defrietis to a bus stop, called her boyfriend, who then called his brother, Bannister. The defendant then got on a Bx2 bus and ordered passengers to leave.
He then went up to an unintended target on the bus, 35-year-old Peter Crosby, demanding to know if he knew Defrietis before brutally stabbing him in the head, puncturing his brain, court papers revealed.
“The defendant got onto a bus and attacked a man by stabbing him in the head,” District Attorney Darcel Clark said. “ A trivial argument about holding open a door had far-reaching and devastating effects.”
Immediately following the incident, EMS rushed Crosby to NYC Health + Hospitals/Lincoln for treatment.
Detectives from the NYPD’s 40th Precinct investigated the incident. To help solve the crime, investigators had access to surveillance photos of the suspects at the time of the incident.
The sentencing follows a continuous downturn in NYC transit crime this year. MTA officials report that subway crime for the first two months of 2025 was down 29% compared to the same period last year.
However, officials also warned that while overall transit crime is down, felony assaults were up last year by a whopping 55% from pre-pandemic levels in 2019.
The state-run MTA said it has taken action to help ease the growing number of felony assaults and overall crime in the system. Efforts include support and investments from Gov. Kathy Hochul to implement security cameras in every subway car and assign more police officers to trains and platforms.
