"He said, 'Yeah, but it's easier to walk down than it is to walk up,' " Robert Freeman said. He said he countered that it was difficult for anyone who is elderly, disabled or pregnant. "He sort of waved me aside, and I was like, fine, these guys are unpleasant."
Metro policy dictates that when a station contains a bank of escalators, at least one should be moving in each direction. In this case, the station manager should have reversed the direction of one of the ascending escalators, Gallagher said.
_____Metrorail Special Report_____
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Derailment Hampers Red Line (The Washington Post, Aug 20, 2004)
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Urgency Drives New Metro Pitch For Funds (The Washington Post, Aug 20, 2004)
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Metro Train Derails, Slowing Red Line Service (The Washington Post, Aug 19, 2004)
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Metro, Localities Agree To Funding Plan (Associated Press, Aug 19, 2004)
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Bus Service to Expand, Shift (The Washington Post, Aug 19, 2004)
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Discussion: Transportation Costs
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Robert Freeman said he passed through the fare gate and headed toward the platform. About that time, Jade Freeman had reached the bottom of the broken escalator and approached the station manager's booth, unaware that her husband had stopped there moments earlier.
"I asked him if the escalator was broken, and he didn't say anything," Jade Freeman said. "He pushed his seat back and threw up his arms, very annoyed. I put my ears on the little holes [in the plexiglass of the booth] and said, 'Um, is the escalator broken?' He got up and just started saying things. He wasn't answering my question; he was throwing tantrums."
Jade Freeman said that after asking for the station manager's name, she went through the fare gate and saw him repeatedly slam his name tag against the glass. He opened the door to the booth and stepped out, she said.
Robert Freeman rushed back to his wife. "He was coming at me," Jade Freeman said of the station manager. "He said, 'Get the [expletive] out of my station.' "
The station manager picked up a nearby broom, the couple said. "He turned to me and said, 'You think you can come down here and harass me because you're white!' " said Jade Freeman, who is Asian. Her husband is white; the station manager is African American.
Then he tossed the broom aside and shoved Robert Freeman in the chest, the couple said.
Jade Freeman called police on her cell phone. A criminal investigation continues, Farbstein said.
"You don't walk down into the Metro expecting to be assaulted by the guy who's there somewhat to assist us," Robert Freeman said.
The couple took a cab to the Kennedy Center.
