Accounts differ on what exactly happened but both sides lodge police complaint over incident
An American tourist is physically attacked by a light rail guard in Jerusalem, as other guards and passengers stand by a video that surfaced Monday showed.
In the clip aired on Channel 10, the young tourist can be seen shouting “get off of me!” and “let go of me!” repeatedly in English as the guard holds him down, shakes him and even puts his hands around his throat at some point.
The attack occurred at one of the stations of the rail, which runs across the capital. As the tourist gets more worked up, the guard seems more determined to restrain him and acts with force.
A woman, who also appears to be a guard, tries to calm her coworker who keeps holding down the distressed tourist.
“He’s not normal,” she says of the tourist, tugging on the guard’s arm in what seems to be an attempt to have him let go.
Later in the video, the woman can be heard telling someone that the tourist “tried to jump [onto the rails]” and that “police and an ambulance were called to take him away.”
Both the guard and the tourist filed a complaint against the other with police.
The guard claims the violent altercation started when the tourist bit another guard and didn’t pay for a ticket to ride the the rail.
The tourist said he paid for a ticket and that the guards were just harassing him.
CityPass, the company that operates the light rail, said in a statement that the passenger in question was known “for having a history of altercations with light rail guards, drivers and passengers.”
The company said the tourist, in one incident, almost led to an accident while riding his skateboard on the rails.
Citypass added that the unnamed US tourist was arrested by police and that a complaint was lodged against him but that an additional review of the situation would take place given the publication of the video showing the incident.
An attorney speaking on behalf of the tourist said that the video “speaks for itself” and that “such violence, even if applied by law enforcement officials would be unusual.”
“There was real violence here. The tourist is considering leaving Israel following this incident,” he told Channel 10.
As reported by The Times of Israel