Amid Metro brawl, family's night out turns into 'pandemonium'

In early June, a fight that started on a Red Line train left a 16-year-old boy beaten unconscious by a group of people who had attacked him over his Air Jordan shoes, the boy's mother said. Union Station was closed for about 30 minutes after a Transit Police officer responded and was backed up by more than a dozen other officers.

Metro spokeswoman Cathy Asato said she had no information to release Sunday about the melee Friday, which began in the Northwest Washington neighborhood near Gallery Place Station, a teen hangout filled with restaurants, clubs, a movie theater and a bowling alley.

A source with knowledge of the investigation said that transit officials were looking into the possibility that the youths had begun to fight on the street outside the station and that D.C. police officers tried to break them up. The youths moved into the station, boarded Metro cars and fought as they spilled out at L'Enfant Plaza. It was there that Hay and her family were waiting to board a train home.

Hay said that when she was four feet from the entrance to a Metro car, a woman next to her was pushed to the ground by people pouring out of the car, which had filled with what she thought was smoke. At her feet, she said, was a substance that looked like shaving cream but smelled like ammonia.

Two Metro Transit Police officers were chasing people, she said, but no other officers arrived for more than 15 minutes. Hay said she called 911, although when more officers did arrive, none of them questioned her or other passengers.

Hay said that at one point she saw seven or eight youths beating someone on the ground, kicking him and using a cane-like weapon to hit him. Other teens ran around the platform, apparently targeting people to attack.

Davis, who was sent to the station floor by the crowd, said the people running from the train were shouting about guns, but he said he did not see any weapons. Metro officials said no weapons were found.

When Davis managed to pick himself up, he saw that his leg was bloody.

"I thought I might have been shot," he said. He went to United Medical Center, where he learned that his shin was broken and that he had a large bruise on his leg. He is on crutches.

"I've been here for six years and taking Metro, and I've never seen any madness ensue like that," he said. "It was very frightening."

Possible solutions

The fight Friday raised concerns that police and transit authorities aren't doing enough to protect riders, especially at higher-risk times and locations. D.C. police and Metro officials declined to comment Sunday.

"I think the police should be looking at a very focused strategy targeted on that problem," said D.C. Council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), who heads the public safety committee.

He rejected an idea raised Saturday by council member Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), who suggested extending the city's teen curfew. Mendelson said such a move would not have prevented Friday's fight because of timing and the ages of many of the participants.

Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), who had supported a move by Wells in June to broaden the curfew, said it was not the answer to the kind of problem that erupted Friday. Graham also said there needs to be better communication between D.C. police and Transit Police.

Council member Harry Thomas Jr. (D-Ward 5) called for non-police measures to the fight.

"I think we need to look at other strategies and target critical places where young people gather," Thomas said.

The D.C. Guardian Angels, a public safety patrol group whose members carry police radios, have said they will be patrolling Green Line trains twice a week, from Fort Totten and Congress Heights, between 8 and 11:30 p.m.