An assault on Tuesday afternoon aboard a Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) train has raised security concerns.
DART police are looking for two suspects — a man and a woman — in a mid-day attack on June 13 that resulted in a male victim being hospitalized for non-life-threatening injuries.
Video footage of the assault was captured by a passenger named Keith Hasty, who was riding on the northbound DART train.
In the video, three people can be seen in a physical altercation on the train — a man and a woman apparently joined in an attack on another man.
The woman can be seen repeatedly striking the victim’s head using the butt of a pistol.
“People were saying take the clip out, take the clip out, there’s innocent bystanders in here,” Hasty told Fox 4.
The apparent assault occurred on the Red Line at LBJ/Central Station in Council Member Adam McGough’s District 10.
Dallas police have struggled to control crime across the city — and downtown area especially — amid an officer shortage.
“We need hundreds of more officers in the city of Dallas,” Police Chief Eddie Garcia explained to The Dallas Express last month.
DART has seen a steady uptick in crime lately, with 120 reports of robberies, sexual assaults, and aggravated assaults aboard its trains and buses logged so far this year. This is more than half the 221 cases reported over the course of last year.
For instance, 26-year-old Charles Tisaby allegedly stole a DART bus and drove recklessly through East Dallas last month, as The Dallas Express reported.
In response to rising crime, DART will be adding contracted officers to its police unit.
“Beginning in July, we’ll actually have an additional 90 security officers on our trains, riding the trains, throughout the system,” said DART spokesman Gordon Shattles, according to Fox 4.
No officer had been posted to the train where Tuesday’s assault occurred.
DPD Executive Assistant Chief David Pughes said in 2020 that “a direct correlation” exists “between the number of officers you have and the ability to control violent crime,” according to NBC 5.
“You can put together specific groups of people to go out and target these locations,” Pughes added.
There have been targeted efforts to patrol downtown Fort Worth, for instance, through police bike patrols and private uniformed security guards. Compared to downtown Dallas, downtown Fort Worth sees considerably less violent crime and even four times fewer assaults, according to data from the Metroplex Civic and Business Association, as The Dallas Express reported.
DART police are still investigating the Tuesday fight between the two men and one woman, who they believe were known to each other prior to the incident.
Hasty told Fox 4 that even though he is a frequent commuter, he had never witnessed something like that before.
“[The gun] could’ve went off and innocent people could’ve got hit,” Hasty told Fox 4. “It could’ve been little babies and kids on the train.”
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