Melvindale bus driver threw ice at fighting kids, prosecutor says

MELVINDALE, Mich. (WJBK) - A bus driver for a Downriver elementary school is out of a job and now in jail after being accused of throwing ice at children.

Patrick Brennan, 63, was charged with two misdemeanors on Thursday, including fourth degree child abuse and assault and battery.

According to Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, Brennan was driving students from Allendale Elementary on Tuesday afternoon when they began yelling and misbehaving.

Brennan got so angry, the prosecutor claims, that he got out of the bus and got some ice from outside and threw it at the children.

John Barley confronted bus driver and couldn't understand why something like this would happen.

"I think the guy's like a bully. What kind of grown man treats kids like that?" Barley said he was getting his fourth grade granddaughter of the Allendale Elementary school bus when he realized what had just happened. "She was frantic and said never again am I getting on that bus."

Brennan has been driving buses in the district since 2009 and admitted his disturbing actions in statements to Melvindale police. He said some of the kids were yelling and misbehaving, so he swore and called them names.

"There was even more kids than usual getting off the bus, All the kids seem to be disturbed and crying, so I said what's going on in this bus? And he said, Just what they said. He didn't look like it bothered him at all," Barley said.

A detective read more of Brennan's statement for the court:

"I was in a rage and I picked up a baseball sized snow and ice combination and just hurled it blindly down the aisles."

The ice hit an 11-year-old girl in the head, causing her to bleed. She was not one of the children who was misbehaving.

Melvindale police were called to the child's home around 4:15 and saw the cut on her eye and blood on her scarf.

She was treated at home and is okay, but the bus driver was arrested.

Barley, who called in the incident, is happy with the police responded.

"Hopefully whatever job this guy pursues in the future, hopefully it doesn't have anything to do with kids," Barley said.

If convicted, Brennan faces one year in prison and five years on probation.