Guards Watched As Girl Beaten at Bus Depot

(CBS/AP)  Three unarmed security guards were following orders last month when they stood by without intervening as a 15-year-old girl was badly beaten in a downtown Seattle bus tunnel. Now the company they work for and government officials say those orders should be revised.

The guards' actions during the brutal attack - captured on surveillance video - prompted an outcry from Metro Transit and King County authorities, who said they wished the guards had broken up the fight even though they're not supposed to.

"We are very disappointed in what people see in that video," said Metro Transit General Manager Kevin Desmond. "It was absolutely unacceptable."

Police arrived minutes after the attack, and after the group had fled. Investigators tracked down four, including the alleged attacker, and arrested them on Friday and Saturday. The four were all charged with first-degree robbery.

In court papers filed Wednesday against the teen girl accused of attacking the 15-year-old and the three young men accused of stealing her purse, phone and iPod, the victim told authorities she thought the security guards would protect her.

Surveillance video first aired by Seattle's KING-TV this week shows the attack at Westlake Station on Jan. 28. The victim appears several seconds before her attackers and sidles up to the three guards, who are standing together and talking.

When a group of teens and young adults approaches the girl, she appears to seek refuge by moving around to the other side of the guards.

Another 15-year-old girl shoves the victim and begins punching her. The two crash into a wall and then onto the floor. The assailant gets up and kicks and stomps on the girl's head. Others grab her purse, iPod and cell phone.

The guards, who have standing orders to "observe and report," called police.

The 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.

At the department store, two Seattle police officers noticed the escalating situation and kicked the group out of the Macy's, then brought the girl and her friend to another exit, the victim said. She reported that she asked the officers for an escort to the bus tunnel, just below the department store, but the officers refused.

"Had these officers known what was to transpire, they probably would have paid for a cab for this victim to be taken safely to her home, but they didn't know. They broke up a couple of disturbances and provided the victim an opportunity to leave the area via bus," said Sgt. Sean Whitcomb, a Seattle police spokesman.

One of the defendants, 18-year-old Dominique Whitaker, told detectives that earlier in the evening the victim had pepper-sprayed another person in the group.

The 15-year-old, who reported that she lost consciousness during the attack, was not hospitalized but did see a doctor.

The mother of the alleged attacker told CBS affiliate KIRO-TV that she was shocked to see her daughter's violent rage on camera.

"My daughter's a beautiful person and she's usually nurturing and loving. I always thought she'd have a job taking care of people," she said. KIRO kept her identity anonymous because her daughter is a minor.

While the mother said she " can't feel sorry for my daughter because those are her actions," the video only tells half the story. According to the mother, the suspect had also been the victim of violence shortly before the attack took place.

"She's been beaten up by guys and she's been maced before," she said, saying that the attacks on her daughter involved some of the same people involved in the tunnel beating.

King County Sheriff's Sgt. John Urquhart said the guards were right to follow their training.

"If you're a bank teller and you do something other than give them the money, you're going to get fired," Urquhart said. "We don't expect civilians to take police action. In this case, it was a violent fight, and they were outnumbered by this pack of people 3-to-1."

Metro Transit contracts with the King County Sheriff's Office for 68 police officers, and supplements that force with civilian guards provided by Olympic Security Services Inc. of Tukwila, Wash. All three of the guards involved are Olympic employees.

The guards' duties include helping customers and reporting suspicious objects, disruptive behavior and equipment problems.

Olympic Security President Mark Vinson did not immediately return calls seeking comment Wednesday. Desmond said he has been in close contact with the company, and its executives were disappointed in the response of the guards.

Olympic Security is working up a proposed contract revision that could include additional training and new guidelines on how and when guards should intervene, Desmond said.

"They are highly motivated to make changes very quickly," Desmond said. "I am motivating them, and they have a reputation to keep."

Other options include hiring armed guards.

Unarmed guards could put themselves and others at risk if they intervene in certain situations. But this incident was largely a fight between two teenage girls, and there does not appear to be any indication that the larger group would have become involved if the guards broke it up, Desmond said.

"If I was there on the platform I don't know that I would have stood there," he said. "It's their job to be down there. The people at Olympic Security had the same human response: 'Why didn't we step in to protect the girl on the ground?"'

The girl charged with being the primary attacker faces up to 2½ years in juvenile detention if convicted. Whitaker and Latroy D. Hayman, 20, each face a sentence of 31 to 41 months in prison if convicted, and the third adult defendant, Tyrone J. Watson, 18, could face a sentence of 36 to 48 months in prison.

It was not immediately clear if any had obtained lawyers.

[erb0087]

There is no "Constututional Right" of private citizens to keep and bear modern semiautomatic firearms.

That is a violation of the Founders' Original Intent.

The 2nd Amendment can only be referring to 18th century firearms, and nobody can pretend to know how the Founders would have felt about the types of weapons used at Virginia Tech, for instance.

Nobody can pretend to know, one way or the other, so to stretch their words to cover modern semiautomatic weapons in a blatant violation of their Original Intent.

Just as the First Amendment protects religion, but that doesn't mean I can invent a "modern religion" that mandates the practice of partial birth abortion, and then claim it as a Constitutional Right.

The Founding Fathers were not talking about religions like that, and they were not talking about semiautomatic weapons.

[Personal_Responsibility]

The US Constitution does not restrict religion, that one would be the Soviet Constitution. The US Constitution restricts government. You are free to invent any religion that you care to, even one that mandates the practice of partial birth abortion. I won't like it, but the Constitution is silent on this matter.

The Supreme Court, in 1833, ruled that the Bill of Rights only limits the federal government. After the Civil War, the Congress passed and the States ratified the 14th Amendment. The 14th Amendment applied the Bill of Rights to the States. This was because the Southern States, who lost the war, had enacted "black codes", which prohibited freedmen (freed black slaves) from possessing firearms.

The framers of the 14th Amendment were concerned about allowing the free black men and women to own, possess and use firearms to protect themselves from the former slave owners and other whites who were intent on keeping them down and terrorized.

Clearly, intent has always been to allow people to defend themselves. Modern firearms include all weapons. We have laws which restrict fully automatic weapons. Semi-automatics are not machine guns. Semi-auto requires a single pull of the trigger for each bullet to be fired.
Discussing semi-auto is an obfuscatorial straw argument.

[erb0087]

by Personal_Responsibility February 12, 2010 10:02 PM EST
"An armed society is a polite society." This was originally written by Robert A. Heinlein, a famous science fiction writer, now deceased.

===============================================

And the statement is fiction.

Nobody walking the streets of inner city Detroit or Beirut, would call those polite societies. Nor would they likely become much more polite if they were even more awash in guns.

The idea that nobody is going to cut in front of you in the grocery line, for fear of your pulling out a semiautomatic and blowing them away, is pure garbage.

That's not a polite society. It's a society based on terrorism.

[Personal_Responsibility]

Yes, the statement was written in a piece of fiction. The complete post speaks of Responsible Firearm Ownership. That means that people need Internal Controls,and...,well,.. reread the post. Clearly, you either did not read the complete post or you do not believe that people can govern themselves.

"Responsible firearms ownership includes being trained, being proficient, being calm and confident, and being willing to step up to help those in need."

[lirocky]

?My daughter's a beautiful person and she's usually nurturing and loving. I always thought she'd have a job taking care of people," she said. KIRO kept her identity

Ha Ha, what this mother should have said is that her daughter is a thug. This just means that she isn't a very involved parent and doesn't really know what her daughter is up to when she is not at home.

[kansas1946]

If you're a bank teller and you do something other than give them the money, you're going to get fired," Urquhart said. "We don't expect civilians to take police action. In this case, it was a violent fight, and they were outnumbered by this pack of people 3-to-1."
**********************
What a bunch of hooey. When are Americans going to quit acting like sheep. This is the same argument that the Nazi guards used at Neuremberg. Didn't work there. This is the same argument that the goons at Abu Greib who tortured prisoners used. Well, I was ordered to do it. Bull.
For anyone to let a girl be kicked and beaten at their feet is outrageous. The "we don't expect civilians to take police action" is the most blatant bunch of bull I have ever heard. If you are hiring security guards to just "observe", hell you might as well hire 90 year old grandma's in wheel chairs to set around and visit, observe, and take notes. I am a small person, a woman, and had I been there, I would have intervened.

[Personal_Responsibility]

You have the right spirit and your understanding of history is correct. I agree wholeheartedly. When a civilian takes action, that is not the same as police action. We expect citizens to act as, well, Citizens!

As a culture, we have begun to act as though we are Subjects. We became Citizens about 200 years ago when the War for Independence was won. (The British called a Revolution, but Americans called it a War for Independence.) When we asserted ourselves, we became Citizens. More importantly, we are Fellow Citizens. As Fellow Citizens, we should be looking out for each other.

[Personal_Responsibility]

"An armed society is a polite society." This was originally written by Robert A. Heinlein, a famous science fiction writer, now deceased. Responsible weapons possession and carrying are crucial to protecting yourself and the weak and defenseless. Should the bad guys know that there are good guys out with weapons, in this case, modern firearms, there will be less of this violence on the streets.

Police may serve, but they do not protect. The courts have ruled and it is so and always has been so. The police do not protect. The police react to the evil that people do, by arresting, jailing and allowing the system to handle those bad folks.

The police have never pro-actively protected anyone. That is not their job. It is your personal responsibility to protect yourself, your loved ones and those within your sphere.

Responsible firearms ownership includes being trained, being proficient, being calm and confident, and being willing to step up to help those in need.
It is not about shooting someone. It is not about being a vigilante. It is about setting boundaries for yourself and helping to reinforce those boundaries for those who are in need of assistance.

In most of the world, there are two categoriEs of people who carry firearms; the government and the bad guys. Fortunately, in most places in America, there is a third category; THE GOOD GUYS!
HOORAY FOR THE GOOD GUYS!

[mchaun-2009]

Too bad you call 20 year olds Girls and Boys when it suits your purposes but 14 year olds become Women and Men at other times.

Monte Haun [e-mail]

[formrusmcsgt]

by toldyouso21 February 12, 2010 11:26 AM EST

The consensus is that I probably will die a violent death or go to jail for butting in like I do--but I'd rather die trying to help than stand there or pretend people do not matter....
--
Emiliano Zapata said "It is beter to die standing than live on one's knees".

Kudos.

[formrusmcsgt]

Three unarmed security guards were following orders last month when they stood by without intervening as a 15-year-old girl was badly beaten in a downtown Seattle bus tunnel. Now the company they work for and government officials say those orders should be revised.
--
I should hope to shout it's being revised.

What the hell are they there for anyway?

Just to watch attacks on the screen?

How patheitic.

"We are very disappointed in what people see in that video," said Metro Transit General Manager Kevin Desmond.

Well MOORN, they are YOUR policies!

I wonder if Desmond would stand with his hands in his pockets while others beat and rob HIS daughter....

Sheesh.

What sheer stupidity.

[Overruled1]

I have to speak out on this one.
This story hits me at home too hard to let go,
I was a victim of childhood schoolyard abuse.
The students of the school were racists and did not appreciate a Mexican at their school, especially one with learning disabilities. I didn't speak English.
I know firsthand how cowardly some attacks come. They called me many names, set me up and regularly harassed me.
Everyday I had to confront someone from the upperclass or a flunkie in mine.
Sometimes it was more than one attack or number of attackers, and they just ran off when they were done with me as I laid on the ground bruised...
The administration covered up for them trying to call it light bullying...
I have been suffering now as an adult of the injuries sustained at the hands of my fellow students...I needed protection then....as the children of america face these issues in todays' schools....
Dont let it happen to yours...

[sphillips1978]

Unfortunately, this is why my children will be combat trained and when old enough have firarm training as well. The security guards are pathetic! Even though the suspect brutally beat this girl, the most disgusting thing on this video was the security guards looking on. I wouldn't care about my job at the time! How are people going to feel secure if nothing is done to ensure safety in that area? Thank God for the cameras!! Those guards should be happy I'm not their supervisor. There's something called human compassion and they don't have it! I guess the dollar won out over the safety of another.