photo by: Shawnee County

Sherika Naomi Carey

A City of Lawrence bus driver on Monday testified that a woman pried the bus doors open, physically intimidated her, called her foul names, then stole her bus and drove it across town last September.

“Bitch, we’re going to the TRC,” the woman told her, she testified. TRC is a reference to the Treatment and Recovery Center at 1000 W. Second St.

The driver said that at the time she was seated in her bus, ignition on, at the Central Station at Bob Billings Parkway and Crestline Drive. She said she was finishing her shift and doing some paperwork before taking the blue transit bus out of service on Sept. 19, 2025.

As she sat there, she noticed a woman running toward the bus, so she opened the door slightly to tell her the bus was out of service, she said, but the woman — whom she identified in court as defendant Sherika Carey — forced the doors all the way apart and climbed in. The driver said Carey, whom she had never met, was “nice at first” but quickly turned “aggressive,” looming over her with fists clenched and eyes wide, shouting.

“I thought she was going to hurt me,” the driver said. Then Carey lifted her leg to get in the seat, forcing her out of the bus, the driver testified.

The driver grabbed her purse as she was forced out and called 911 on her cellphone. As the bus pulled out it nearly hit her, she said.

A Lawrence Transit employee who works at the front desk of Central Station testified that he saw the bus take off and saw the driver “broken up” and “crying.”

“I was kind of shocked,” he said. The man followed the bus on foot for a ways to see what direction it was headed. He identified Carey in court based on surveillance video he had seen from the bus.

Two police officers also testified on Monday about the ensuing chase north on Iowa, east on Sixth Street and then north again, eventually to an area near Michigan and West Second streets.

Officer Eric Stockman said that when he saw the bus as he was heading southbound on Iowa, he turned around and flipped on his lights and sirens, but Carey did not stop. He said her top speed throughout was 42 mph, but she clipped multiple curbs, gave a road crew worker a bit of scare and at one point was briefly in oncoming traffic.

Stockman said another officer, Sgt. Amaury Collado, was able to get in front of the bus to force it to stop. Getting Carey out of the bus was “a struggle,” Stockman said, adding that Collado “had her at gunpoint.”

Collado testified that it took two officers to get her out of the bus. He said she was making statements about “Lucifer” and other matters seemingly having to do with religion.

Following testimony, Judge Amy Hanley found probable cause to order Carey, 26, to stand trial on one count of robbery and one count of felony flee and elude. She set a trial date of Sept. 8. Carey waived formal arraignment and entered a plea of not guilty.

Carey is also facing a misdemeanor count in the same case of transmitting or communicating false information to request emergency service assistance. In another case stemming from the same day, she has been charged with misdemeanor battery and criminal damage to property. The property is listed in the charging document as a person’s headphones.

Carey is also currently facing misdemeanor harassment and stalking charges in Shawnee County and has a string of juvenile offenses in other counties, including battery in Johnson, Saline and Neosho counties.