Additional Sheriff's Deputies Guard Bus Terminal in Response to Seattle Teen Beating
Feb. 12, 2010 — -- In response to the brutal beating of a 15-year-old girl at a Seattle public bus terminal, the King County Sheriff's Department said it had placed sheriff's deputies at each bus stop inside the terminal.
"There have always been deputies assigned to the tunnel, but not enough for each stop. Now we have at least one on all five platforms," John Urquhart, a spokesman for the King County Sheriff's office, said.
On the evening of Jan. 28, a young woman was kicked repeatedly by another 15-year-old, but the three security guards never stepped in, even after the victim's purse was stolen, although one did call 911.
"I think there is a general feeling in Seattle that the bus tunnel isn't safe. That wasn't true before the beat down, and it isn't true now … but is important to reassure the public," Urquhart said.
Urquhart said his office had received calls from an outraged public demanding answers as to how this incident could have happened.
King County Metro Transit hired a private security company, and the company said it had standing orders to only "observe and report."
"They have policies and mission and rules about what they can and can't do," Urquhart said.
The security system is under review, and the additional force from the Sheriff's Department is only an interim solution. The private security guards will still remain in the tunnel, Urquhart said.
This is not an unusual case, according to security experts from around the county. Most private security guards under contract by cities, shopping malls and businesses work under strict rules to retreat, not to jump in, if something goes wrong.
Yet the video also shows other people standing on the platform who did not break up the teenage fight.
Urquhart said it is easy to "Monday morning quarterback" and say that you would have stopped the attack.
"Often in these situations people are just so stunned … they don't intervene," Urquhart said.
Some witnesses said they did not do anything because they mistakenly believed that the men with "Security" written across their backs would actually provide some.
The victim told Seattle investigators that she believed the three security guards who stood by and watched would protect her.
"I went to the security and told them that these kids were trying to jump me," the girl said in her statement to investigators that ABC News obtained. "I know that I am about to get jumped, and I am hanging around the guards to try and get protection."
"I thought the security guards would defend me," said the victim, whose name is being withheld because she is a minor.
