Widow condemns “barbaric” death of driver beaten over masks

BAYONNE, France — The wife of a French bus driver who was beaten to death after he asked four passengers to wear face masks aboard his vehicle called Saturday for “exemplary punishment” for his killers.

The assault on Philippe Monguillot has scandalized France. President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday dispatched the interior minister to meet the driver’s widow after his death was announced Friday. He had been hospitalized in critical condition after the July 5 attack.

Veronique Monguillot said she told the minister, Gerald Darmanin, that she and their three daughters were “destroyed” by the attack on her husband at a bus stop in Bayonne, southwest France.

The Bayonne prosecutor said Monguillot was assaulted after he asked four passengers on his No. 810 bus to wear face masks. The driver was insulted, pushed off the bus and violently beaten and kicked in the head, the prosecutor said.

Four people are in custody.