Metro has closed an investigation into a rider’s complaint that accused police of mistreating a mentally ill man in January, pushing him into the ground and bloodying his face.
“The actions of all of the officers involved were in compliance with our training practices and directives,” Metro Transit Police Deputy Chief Ron Pavlik wrote in a letter to the rider dated March 9.
Rudolf Rojas, a federal software consultant, had told The Washington Examiner that he had watched the Jan. 3 incident begin at the Metro Center sales office when the man cut in line.
Another rider pushed the man, then police jumped in and started punching and grabbing the man and pushed him to the ground, Rojas said. The man, who was not taking medication for his paranoid schizophrenia, was involuntarily committed at a local hospital but was not criminally charged. Metro officials had said he was being combative.
Metro Transit Police said in the letter they conducted a “thorough investigation” of Rojas’ complaint. They interviewed Metro employees in the sales office and the station manager on duty, plus got written statements from the officers, and their accounts did not corroborate Rojas’ complaint that cops used excessive force.
“Naturally I am disappointed that they absolved them of any wrongdoing,” Rojas told The Examiner this week. “But honestly, I did not expect any other resolution since the victim did not file any complaint.”
