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Video: Investigation after Philly cop’s scuffle with man over fare

Shows the man swinging back at the officer and later being forcibly removed while holding the small girl

By Maryclaire Dale
Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA — Security video appears to show a Philadelphia transit officer shove a man holding a toddler against the wall and grab him by the throat as they argued over whether he paid the $2.25 fare.

The video shows the man swinging back at the officer and later being forcibly removed from the train still holding the small girl. He was then handcuffed on the platform and charged with resisting arrest.

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority video shows police speaking with him on the train for more than 15 minutes Thursday evening. The train eventually came to a stop and some rush-hour service was halted.

The veteran officer involved in the confrontation later told a supervisor he feared he would be disciplined if he walked away, SEPTA’s police chief said Friday.

“If a 16-year officer thinks they can’t step away from a situation that’s spiraling into something that might jeopardize the safety of a child, that’s on me. I never want a child’s safety to be jeopardized,” Chief Thomas Nestel said.

Nestel has waged an aggressive campaign against fare evaders, issuing 5,100 citations last year, on the theory that those passengers often cause other problems. He often posts their pictures on social media.

However, he said Friday that fare evasion is not equivalent to rape or murder, and said his officers are not trained to grab people by the throat.

An internal investigation is underway. The officer involved in the shoving match was off Friday.

“I don’t know that I’ll be taking him off the street,” Nestel said.

There is no transit video of the man jumping the turnstile or otherwise evading the fare because the north Philadelphia station where he entered is under construction, Nestel said. The information instead came from a cashier, he said.

However, a passenger’s video that caught some of the man’s interaction with police was posted online and drew hundreds of thousands of views.

Fare evaders are typically removed, asked for identification and cited, transit officials said.

SEPTA officials did not immediately have the accused passenger’s name. Nestel thought the young girl — dressed in a pink dress and braids — was the man’s daughter, and perhaps 1 or 2 years old. The girl’s mother took custody of her after the man’s arrest, he said.

“We can’t endanger the lives of little kids over a fare evasion,” Nestel said. “That’s unacceptable and that’s on me.”

Copyright 2015 The Associated Press

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