“Attack on Metro at Rush Hour – guy had a broken jaw and his face was swollen beyond recognition”

Ed. Note: In July there was a stabbing homicide aboard a Red Line train by NoMa. An arrest was made.

A reader passes on from the Brookland Listserv:

“Attack on Metro at Rush Hour

Just to let the neighborhood know, I saw a group of kids beat a guy on the metro on the way home from work today. I got on the train at Union Station and realized I should move away from a group of 10 or 12 kids who were being loud and rowdy. And sure enough they egged each other on to attack a guy who was just sitting there for no reason. They were punching his head until he tried to move and then they knocked him out. When he came to he stumbled over to us where I had alerted the driver that we needed the train to stop and the police. He couldn’t remember what had happened and was totally out of it and was bleeding everywhere. The driver held the train at metro and kept the doors closed for a bit but the kids were running through the cars and escaped when the doors opened. They tried to lock down the station but I think they got on a train going in the other direction.

The poor guy had a broken jaw and his face was swollen beyond recognition. His poor wife was there at NoMa and held him until the ambulance came. She said he had texted her not to get on the car because there was a rowdy group and he was going to move. What a way to come home from work. Stay away from rowdy groups of kids and know how to alert the driver should you ever need to.

Some advice for metro:

1- The driver should have let me tell him what the assailants looked like to pass on to the police before he opened the doors. It also was a little unnerving being stuck on the train with the assailants while the doors were closed, but that was worth it to corner them while the police got in place. The police didn’t even seem to know which car to come to!

2- Once everyone was unloaded they should have made trains going in the opposite direction skip the platform, because I am pretty sure that’s how the assailants escaped.

3- When a guy is bleeding from the mouth after getting pounded on it isn’t helpful for you to just say “I got you bro, I got you.” Is the ambulance coming? Where should we wait with him? Are the police coming? Give us some information!”