Arizona white man, Joshua Bagley, was arrested for allegedly strangling a Black woman, Diane Craig, on a local bus in Phoenix.
News reports said Bagley was arrested near 27th Avenue and Indian School Road after authorities received a tip. He was then booked on one count of first-degree murder and is being held on a $2 million bond.
Police also discovered that Bagley was booked into the Maricopa County Jail on May 1 and then released on May 3. He was sentenced to two years in jail for disorderly conduct and attempting to flee from law enforcement. Court documents indicated that he served a year and was released on May 4, 2021.
Additionally, he was wanted for a felony warrant in Mohave County for unlawful means of transportation and criminal damage.
Police said the 26-year-old man shaved his head and facial hair by the time he was recently arrested but told investigators that the man in a video of the incident resembled him.
Surveillance video from the city bus revealed a man, who authorities said matched the Phoenix man’s description, strangling Craig, pushing her on the floor, putting straps around her neck, and repeatedly wrapping the straps around. Officials said he was then seen taking items from the 41-year-old’s belongings.
The bus driver said the man in the video got off at the southwest corner of 19th Avenue and Southern Avenue and that he found Craig unresponsive on the floor while conducting a bus check afterward. He also recalled her and the man previously sitting near each other in the back, as they were the only passengers in the vehicle. They reportedly entered it at the South 22nd Avenue bus stop north of West Buckeye Road.
The driver added that though he heard some noise in the back of the bus, he didn’t think anything of it.
The 41-year-old woman was rushed to the hospital following the attack and reportedly had strangulation marks around her neck. She later died from internal decapacitation, according to doctors.
“She definitely did not deserve this. Our family is hurting,” The victim’s cousin, Roshuanda Boss, told reporters. “Diane was a wonderful person. She was so full of life.”
“Diane is her name, but that’s Bubbles. That’s what we call her. [That’s] Bubbles. She was like the life of the room,” another one of her relatives, Shontae Vinson, said.
Craig’s family held a memorial with balloons and flowers for her in Laveen.
