A Metro rider is calling for reforms of the transit agency’s police force after he says he saw multiple officers beat a man earlier this month, punching and pushing him into the ground, bloodying his face. Rudolf Rojas, a Department of Agriculture software consultant, said he was further disturbed when he got no response after calling Metro to ask about the man who appeared to be ill or disabled.
“While overwhelming force may be required in some situations, this was not one of them,” Rojas said. “It was a total misuse of force.”
Metro is currently not investigating the case for any police misconduct, said spokesman Dan Stessel. He said the man, who was not taking medication for his paranoid schizophrenia, became combative. The man was taken to a hospital where he was involuntarily committed. He has not been criminally charged, Stessel said.
The case was the second time in a year that riders have questioned Transit Police tactics handling people with physical or mental problems over apparently minor incidents. In May, two cops were filmed in a scuffle as they arrested a man in a wheelchair.
The latest incident happened Jan. 3 at the Metro Center sales office. Rojas said a man behind him in line at the sales office asked if it was the correct line for malfunctioning farecards. Rojas thought the man might have a disability because he was shaking.
The man cut to the front when a window opened up, asking for help with his card. Someone who was next in line pushed him, Rojas said. Police jumped in and grabbed the shaking man.
Stessel said the man had been acting inappropriately, getting too close to women and beating on the sales office window. When an officer intervened, the man became combative. Four officers were needed to restrain the man.
But Rojas said he never saw the man getting too close to anyone and didn’t believe the man pounded on the window.
“He should not have broken the line,” Rojas said. “He wasn’t being combative. He started saying, ‘Leave me alone,’ and then they started going in for the kill.”
Rojas and other witnesses yelled for police to stop as they “started punching and grabbing” him and pushed him to the ground.
“I heard an awful loud crack, which I was sure was his head hitting the floor,” he said. He later saw blood on the man’s face and on the floor.
Stessel confirmed that the man received a laceration and police brought the man to the ground but said that was a technique that police use.
