SEPTA Police Investigate After Rider Beaten, Tasered And Thrown On Tracks By Pair Of Robbers
By Walt Hunter
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- SEPTA police say a passenger survived a potentially deadly attack at the Millbourne Station of the Market-Frankford El, when he was beaten and tasered by a pair of robbers who threw him onto the tracks.
SEPTA video, shown first and exclusively in an I-Team report by CBS 3's Walt Hunter, then shows the victim collapsing onto the 3rd rail, which powers trains with electricity.
The video shows the victim draped over the 3rd rail for 90 seconds, before he is able to stand and make his way off the tracks to safety. He was later hospitalized for injuries, but has now been released.
SEPTA Police Captain Daryl Jones says, "At one point the female pulls out a taser and she tases the male on his back, and I think that subsequently that has him jump and he winds up falling in the track area."
Capt. Jones says the two attackers, a man and a woman, boarded the westbound train at the Allegheny Station, shortly after midnight Saturday.
Video shows the pair stalking the victim as he was sleeping in his seat, before snatching his bag as doors opened at the Millbourne Station.
After beating and tasering the victim, who pursued them along the platform trying to retrieve his belongings, the suspects take off, leaving him injured and barely conscious on the tracks in potentially deadly danger.
As the victim is stunned, laying on the tracks, he stumbles over on to the electrified 3rd rail, carrying 700 volts to power trains.
Capt. Jones says, "The third rail is extremely dangerous. It's instant electrocution. It's instant death."
For 90 terrifying seconds, the victim, separated only by a top protected cover, is one touch of the hand and one move of the head from a fatal shock only inches away.
"He's very lucky the insulator was intact and there were no gaps."
Capt. Jones says he hopes someone will recognize the suspects in the video and provide information leading to their arrest.
