the story, from bbc news.

MAN DIES FOLLOWING BUS INCIDENT

Detectives have launched a major investigation into a suspected murder in Sheffield.

A spokesman said Michael John Howard, 33, from the Firth Park Road area collapsed soon after getting off a bus on Friday evening.

He was pronounced dead at hospital and police want to question three youths who were getting onto the bus.

It is believed some kind of altercation took place and police want other passengers on the bus to come forward.

'Altercation developed'

The South Yorkshire Police spokesman said the man had got off the 75/76 bus from Sheffield near to the junction with Bell House Road.

"The man appears to have come across a group of youths and an altercation seems to have developed.

"Details are sketchy but the man collapsed shortly afterwards. He was taken to the Northern General Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

"We are treating this as a suspected murder."

The three youths travelled on to the Ecclesfield area, he said.

"The bus was fitted with CCTV cameras and we will be able to identify the people involved but we would prefer it if they come forward," he added.

He also appealed for a man and woman who got off the bus in Firth Park Road and a youth sat on the top deck to come forward as well.

Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/england/south_yorkshire/4238807.stm
Published: 2005/02/05 22:04:58 GMT
� BBC MMV

mike	05 February 2005 - 3:30 pm

last night we got a phone call from karl's parents. his eldest brother, mike, had been attacked by a group of guys as he came home from an evening out with a friend. he was taken to the hospital where he died.

mike was 33 years old, the father of two small girls, isabel (2 years) and megan (9 months).

the police don't know much, but are investigating.

karl spent about 30 minutes on the phone with his parents last night. they are distraught, of course. they are taking turns being the strong one and supporting the other. when they called, karl's mom was the strong one.

karl offered to call stephen, his other brother, who lives here, but was in florida for the weekend visiting some in-laws. they work together, so when karl called, stephen assumed it was something about work and started going on about it. karl had to cut him off about 30 seconds in to give him the bad news. karl said that in those few seconds, he envied stephen. still oblivious, still unaffected. it's terrible to have to give people news that's going to change their lives.

for the rest of the night, the grief came in waves, sometimes taking our breath away. in between, we talked about practical things: when are we going to leave to go over? what do we have to do beforehand? (inform work, get a catsitter, call b---- to say we won't be at her wedding tonight, call my parents, call the airlines, cancel my class on tuesday night and my doctor's appt on monday morning) karl doesn't have a suit, so we're going out to buy one. we also talked about mike, of course. he had turned his life around after his girlfriend becky got pregnant almost 3 years ago. before that, he had been a wild child; he had trouble holding down jobs, went from girlfriend to girlfriend, never had any money... but when he became a father he settled down. had a good, steady job, bought a house, was a great father. and this happens.

karl says he feels most sorry for mike himself, who will never get to see his daughters grow up. i don't know who i feel worst for. mike; becky, who is now a 20 year-old widowed mother of two; isabel and megan, who will never know their father; karl's parents, who have lost a child.

as we fell asleep last night, i decided that i'm going to give my sister back the FDR newspaper that we've been going back and forth over. it's just not worth it.

today, we've called a few more people. friends, mostly, and people who we need to do stuff for us. julius and susan showed up shortly after we told them. when the arrived on our doorstep unannounced, i was a little taken aback. we were a mess, in our bathrobes, sitting on the couch amidst piles of used kleenex. but it was really nice to have them here. we even laughed. thanks, j&s!

after much back and forth with karl's brother and parents, we've decided to go tomorrow, using my d*lta pass priviledges (fly standby, but cheap tickets). we called several airlines asking about bereavement fares, but there are two problems: the cost is $600-800, and you have to have the name of the funeral home/funeral director/etc to prove there has been a death. but, since this was a homicide, and there's an investigation, we don't know when the funeral is going to be. the defense attornies have up to 28 days to do their own autopsy of the body, so we don't know when the body will be released. in fact, even though we're going over tomorrow, we may have to leave then go back again later for the funeral. point is, we have no funeral details to give to the airlines to get the bereavement fare. so we're taking d*lta, for ~$380, but flying standby. hopefully, we'll have no trouble getting there and back.

this still doesn't seem quite real. karl has TWO brothers! not one!