A security guard for St. Louis’ light rail system repeatedly punched and stomped a man in the head as the victim laid face-down on a bustling platform — while nearby commuters recorded video and pleaded for him to stop.
The guard, who worked for a subcontractor, has since been “removed from duty,” according to Kevin Scott, general manager of security at Bi-State Development, which operates Metro Transit in St. Louis.
“Metro Transit does not condone unprofessional and extreme actions regardless of circumstances,” said Scott in a statement, adding the agency is assisting police with their investigation.
Video obtained by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch shows the guard in a black and yellow uniform standing with one foot on either side of the man, who is lying on his stomach trying weakly to shield his head with his hands. The guard bends down and clocks him, closed-fisted in the head, three times.
One person is heard shouting, “He’s not hurting you right now!” Another screams, “Stop, stop man!”
The officer shouts at the victim, “I asked you for your hands behind your back!”
“He was not moving. He was not resisting,” recalled Michael Hamtil, a daily rider of the transit system and assistant multimedia director at the Post-Dispatch, who recorded and witnessed the incident.
Another video shows the guard yelling at bystanders that the man “put his hands on a woman.” He shouts, “That’s your momma, your sister, anything!”
It also shows the guard pushing away a concerned female guard as the man lies handcuffed on the ground in a pool of blood while another guard tends to him, according to the news outlet.
Paramedics responded, but the man’s status was not immediately known.
“I’m disturbed completely,” said Tim Orange, another train rider who witnessed the alleged assault and also shot some video.
Both the guard and the man he punched are black.
Witnesses told the Post-Dispatch the episode began at around 7 p.m. Friday when two men were passed out on the train and vomiting. Security guards walked onto the train when it arrived at the MetroLink station north of Forest Park-DeBaliviere, a popular 1,300-acre area that houses the city’s zoo, a science center and museums.
However, one of the men suddenly got up, screaming, rushed off the train and ran headfirst into the side of another MetroLink train, Hamtil said.
That man fell again, and Orange said the man got up and tried to bear hug a female security guard. She attempted to push him away, and other security guards sought to apprehend him. That’s when the punches began flying, witnesses said.
Witnesses also said the guard stomped the man, but that isn’t visible on the videos.
Hamtil said other officers took the guard’s phone and badge and told him to leave the station or he was going to be arrested. The second man was not seen in the witness videos, and it was not clear what happened to him.
With Post wires
