BALTIMORE -- Maryland Transit Administration officials are investigating a second reported assault on a bus in the last week. Meanwhile, surveillance photos have been released and the bus driver has been taken off the road.

Patrick Green and Robert Rothe told WBAL TV 11 News that they were antagonized and attacked after boarding the No. 64 bus late Monday night in south Baltimore.

The men, who are white, said the attackers yelled racial slurs and that no one on board, including the driver, stepped in to stop the attack. MTA surveillance cameras captured four men boarding the bus at the Hanover Street stop Monday night, moments before Green and Rothe got on.

Green and Rothe said they believe other passengers were afraid to help and that the driver refused to call for help.

"We were saying the whole time to the driver, 'You need to help us, call the police,'" Green told 11 News reporter Kerry Cavanaugh. "He said, 'I can't. I'll get in trouble.'"

Roth said the driver closed the door and drove away, even though the attack continued once they got off the bus.

"We could've been left on the side of the road, dead," Rothe said.

MTA officials said the driver of the bus is currently not operating a vehicle while the incident is being investigated.

MTA officials said they're not currently classifying the incident as a hate crime. They said they're simply calling it a common assault.

Green and Rothe said they're mad it took MTA officials three days to release photos of the suspects.

"I would have liked to have seen the pictures of the suspects out earlier, just for the protection of the rest of the community," Green said.

Anyone with information is asked to call MTA police at 410-454-7720.

In a similar incident, Sarah Kreager said she suffered broken facial bones and other injuries after she was punched, kicked and dragged off a bus Dec. 4. Kreager's companion, Troy Ellis, was also attacked, but not beaten as severely.

That incident is still under investigation.

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