A man charged with strangling another man to death on an MTS bus in April 2022 pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter.
Edward Hilbert, 56, will be sentenced in the coming months for the death of 28-year-old Anthony McGaff during a ride on the #235 MTS bus route just after 8 p.m. last year.
According to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by McGaff's mother and father, Anthony McGaff was involved in a dispute with a woman on board after McGaff discovered that she was recording him on her cell phone.
The parents, Angela McGaff and James Smith, say the dispute escalated and McGaff told her not to record him. The woman refused and took another phone out and started recording again. McGaff tried to grab the phone and that is when the 56-year-old Hilbert intervened.
According to police reports as well as the parents' wrongful death claim, Hilbert grabbed McGaff and put him in a chokehold.
Hilbert held the stranglehold for more than eight minutes until the bus stopped. McGaff was found unresponsive and died soon after.
Initial media reports lauded Hilbert as a good Samaritan who was trying to defend a woman on board. However, McGaff’s parents, who spoke to CBS 8 in December of last year, had a much different account.
During the interview, they said their son should have never died. They blamed the MTS bus driver for failing to prevent the altercation with the woman and their son. They said Hilbert should have never got involved and lastly, they blame the bus driver for failing to stop the bus as soon as their son was put in the chokehold.
Those allegations are now part of a civil lawsuit that McGaff's parents, James Smith and Angela McGaff, filed late last year against Hilbert and MTS.
"This young lady was behaving erratically. And it probably would have gotten addressed at that moment, versus letting it linger on. That's just simply all about just not having the right security. I think my son was simply provoked. People in today's world don't like to be filmed. They don't like their pictures taken under any circumstances. So I believe it was simply he was just provoked to the point where he felt like he needed to, I guess, take action."
"I go over this over and over again in my head, but there are no results," said McGaff's father, James Smith. "There is no result other than my son is dead. There's no result. I can't rewind time."
Hilbert's sentencing for involuntary manslaughter is scheduled for October 27.
Hilbert's attorney declined to comment for the story.
