A security video showing a mob of students brutally beating two high schoolers in a Philadelphia subway station on Tuesday is being investigated by the city’s transportation officers.
“It’s an outrageous event. This is so dangerous, it’s not even funny,” Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority Police Chief Thomas J. Nestel III told Philly.com.
“We have operating trains down there. There are passengers waiting for the train ... it’s horrendous.”
The video, which was time-stamped around 3:15 p.m., shows about a dozen teenagers either participating in a one-minute assault on two male students, or cheering it on.
One of the assailants falls onto the subway tracks, pulls himself out and reenters the thrashing. A girl in the crowd tries to film the fight on her phone.
Several of the teen brutes repeatedly stomp a victim’s head as he’s lying on the ground.
The assault begins one minute into a four-minute clip released by SEPTA.
Some of those involved in the attack — including the victims — fled onto a train moments before SEPTA officers rushed to the platform and others appear to have simply walked away. Nobody involved in the attack reported it to police, Nestel said.
Initial reports indicate the fight started over a female student and that the victims were followed into the Spring Garden Station and someone signaled for the group to attack them. The victims are obscured behind a subway map in the video when the beatdown begins.
The victims, both from Benjamin Franklin High School, have been identified, but it’s unclear if SEPTA officers have spoken with them or what their condition is, a SEPTA spokesperson told the Daily News. It’s also unclear if all of the students went to the same school.
Police believe several of the assailants went to the same school and the district is trying to identify those responsible, with suspension or expulsion as possible punishments.
After the assault, SEPTA upped its security at 10 stations that typically see steady student traffic.
