Armed cops to patrol bus tunnel after teen beating

By KOMO Staff Published: Feb 12, 2010 at 8:43 AM PDT Last Updated: Feb 14, 2010 at 2:24 PM PDT
Armed cops to patrol bus tunnel after teen beating »Play Video
SEATTLE - Reacting to growing outrage over the beating of a 15-year-old girl in the Seattle bus tunnel, King County officials said armed, uniformed deputies will now be posted in the tunnel during operating hours.

The girl was assaulted at the tunnel's Westlake Station and robbed by four people Jan. 28 as surveillance cameras rolled and three Metro security guards stood by watching without taking any action to intervene.

Surveillance video footage of the incident sent shockwaves across the nation as it was broadcast on TV news shows and spread over the Internet.

King County Executive Dow Constantine said Thursday at least one uniformed, armed deputy will be deployed at each of five tunnel stations as an interim step during a review of the contract with the firm that employs Metro guards.

The beefed-up security measures will take effect Thursday night.

"These new measures will assure transit customers of a police presence that meets their expectations for safety and security in the bus tunnel," Constantine said.

Officials said the increased presence of commissioned officers would heighten security in combination with other assets in the tunnel, including video surveillance and unarmed security guards.


Watch the security video.
The 15-year-old victim of the Jan. 28 attack was knocked unconscious during the attack but has since recovered.

A 15-year-old girl who is accused of being the primary attacker pleaded not guilty in juvenile court Thursday to assaulting and robbing the 15-year-old victim. She faces up to 2 1/2 years in juvenile detention if convicted.

She is accused of being one of four people who attacked the girl, punching and kicking her in the head, then stealing her purse, phone and iPod before fleeing from the scene as security guards stood by passively.

All four suspects are charged with first-degree robbery. The three other suspects will be charged as adults in King County Superior Court.

The 15-year-old victim told a King County sheriff's detective that the group followed her from a nearby department store into the bus tunnel at Westlake Station on Jan. 28, and she deliberately stood next to the three guards for protection.

The guards didn't intervene, though. They have standing orders to "observe and report," so they called police but did nothing else as the other 15-year-old girl punched and repeatedly kicked the victim in the head.

One of the suspects, 20-year-old LaTroy Hayman, said he didn't intervene in the fight because "I know both of'em" and "They've been fighting off and on for like two years."

Hayman said he didn't know why the security guards, who were near the fighting girls, didn't intervene.

"She was standing between all the security guards, then they just started fighting," he said. "I was going to break it up, but then, the last time I broke up a fight, I ended up getting slit in my face."

Government officials as well as executives at Olympic Security Services Inc., which employs the guards, are reviewing that protocol after the guards' lack of response was caught on surveillance video.

In the meantime, Constantine said the new increased security measures will raise the profile of law enforcement officers at all Metro tunnel stations until Metro completes its security review.