FORT WAYNE – Michael Wescott is a veteran who has one leg.

He’s been that way for about 27 years, ever since he was shot during an attempted robbery while shopping on Christmas Eve in 1984 in Atlanta.

Wescott says a man tried to rob him, but he scuffled with the robber and then ran. The robber fired three shots at him as he fled, and a bullet hit him in the thigh, severing his femoral artery.

Wescott says he almost bled to death, but he survived. Before long, though, his foot became gangrene, and his leg was amputated at the ankle. Later more gangrene set in, and his leg was amputated above the knee.

In a way, Wescott said, it’s a good thing he ran. A robber who would shoot him for running away would almost certainly have killed him had he meekly given up the $300 he had in his pocket.

Eventually, Wescott went on disability. He says his sister calls it free money, but he says nothing has been free. He lost a major part of his body. Besides, he says, he doesn’t get that much, though he dodges the question about how much he gets, saying only that his rent eats up half his income.

In 2008, Wescott, who lived in Fort Wayne in the 1970s, returned to Fort Wayne. Today he gets around in a power chair, gets rides to the grocery from friends or neighbors and then takes a taxi home. He can usually count on a VA van to give him rides to and from the VA Medical Center.

Occasionally, though, he needs to ride the bus, and for three years he’s been able to buy a $3 all-day pass for half price because he is disabled.

This month, though, Wescott said he got on the bus at the VA center, and deposited $1.50 for an all-day pass. The bus driver, though, asked to see his Citilink ID verifying that he is disabled. Wescott doesn’t have one.

That struck Wescott as silly. “Look at me,” Wescott said he told the bus driver. “I’m missing a leg. I’m clearly disabled.”

He said he told the driver that if he couldn’t see that, he shouldn’t be driving a bus.

The driver told him he had to pay full fare if he didn’t have a Citilink ID, so Wescott, who said he had less than $2 on him, had to get off the bus. He said he went into the VA and found someone willing to spot him $1.50 and went out to catch the next bus, paying full fare.

He can understand someone who has a disability that you can’t see needing to carry the Citilink ID, but he’s missing a leg. It’s obvious, Wescott said, and having to get off the bus was wrong, inconsiderate, disrespectful and unfair. He called Citilink to complain but got no satisfaction

I asked Citilink about the incident and the requirement that passengers have some type of ID card to get discounts.

Citilink has long given seniors, students and disabled people rides for half price, and it has always required people to have IDs, which cost $2, to receive the discount, said Claudia Harris-Stevenson, operations manager for Citilink.

Over time, though, bus drivers would get to know riders and know who got a discount, and many drivers stopped demanding to see their IDs.

But other passengers who had to pay full fare started to resent seeing other people get discounts for no clear reason.

Also, people were going to local stores and buying half-price passes and using them when they weren’t eligible for the discounts, so Citilink started requiring all passengers to show the required ID card to receive the discount.

Harris-Stevenson said the bus driver who wouldn’t let Wescott on the bus may have gone to an extreme. She added that she has no record of Wescott calling Citilink to complain.

It would have been OK for the driver to give Wescott a discount since he is obviously disabled, she said, but also to tell him that he needed to get a Citilink ID. Some drivers see gray areas, while others strictly follow the rules, Harris-Stevenson said.

Good to hear there is still some compassion out there.

Wescott says he will probably get the required ID.

In a way his little flap with the bus company might have a silver lining.

Because he is disabled, he is actually eligible for an ID that will let him ride for free as long as he rides big buses and gets on at regular bus stops.