Cops: Man attacks over crying toddler

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - An Albuquerque bus rider got so upset over a crying toddler that he stabbed the mother's friend, police reported Tuesday.

"The guy had got off the bus with us, had a knife and just sliced my friend," Cheri Moore told a 911 dispatcher Monday afternoon.

Police said Lawrence Sitler cut the woman's friend, Andrew Montaño, because her 2-year-old son wouldn't stop crying as the ABQ Ride bus traveled on San Mateo Boulevard NE.

"They're just trying to ride the city bus, you know, minding their own business," Albuquerque Police Department Officer Robert Gibbs told KRQE News 13. Sitler told the mother to shut her kid up because he had a headache, Gibbs added.

Investigators said the mother and her two friends then decided to get off the bus north of Comanche Road in advance of their intended stop.

"They basically, to avoid a confrontation, exited the bus," Gibbs said.

But according to police, Sitler, 46, followed them off the bus anyway. Moore told police that Sitler approached Montaño, put a knife to his neck and then sliced him on his arm.

"He's carrying a knife," one witness told a 911 dispatcher. "I saw him put it back in his pocket."

Sitler then crossed the street to Ponderosa Avenue. Witnesses followed him while on the phone with 911 dispatchers trying not to lose him until police arrived.

"He's going west on Ponderosa off of San Mateo," a 911 caller said. "One of the guys, who's a witness, is chasing him."

Those witnesses chased Sitler for more than 10 minutes from the bus stop to Monroe Street where he started losing his breath, according to one witness.

Police finally caught up with him not far from there.

Sitler is charged with aggravated battery, assault with a deadly weapon and child endangerment because the stabbing happened in front of the toddler.

Police commended the people who made sure Sitler didn't get away and making the ride he'd taken through the city ended at the jail.

"Obviously he's got some sort of issues," Gibbs said.