Subway Hammer Attack Caught on Video

A Philadelphia man is attacked on the subway by a hammer wielding man and it is all caught on tape. The attack was unprovoked and appeared completely random.

Thomas Scantling, 26, who was arrested by the Philadelphia police, has been charged with aggravated assault and attempted murder and is allegedly the attacker in the video.

Scantling is riding the subway with his six-year-old son after midnight, when he instructs his son to sit down.

Scantling then removes a hammer from a carry-on bag and allegedly begins to strike a sleeping passenger again and again with the hammer. The blows appear to be brutal, vicious and unrelenting. The attacker clearly means to harm the victim.

As the train rolls to a stop and the exit doors open, the attack moves from the train to the platform with the victim attempting to defend himself.

The first video is a short report on the incident by a Philadelphia TV station and includes raw footage of the attack:



Although several other passengers are aboard the train, none of them make any effort to help the victim. In fact, some of them quickly leave the area.

Police identified the victim as 20-year-old Dewayne Taylor, who was on his way home after work. Taylor made his own way to a local hospital after the attack, was treated for head and neck wounds and released.

Taylor said he did not know his assailant and knew of no reason for the attack.

Scantling’s family had him committed to a mental institution after the attack, and then called authorities identifying him as the attacker.

Scantling has a long criminal history including rape, robbery, assault, and narcotics violations.

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey criticized the reaction by the passengers on the train to the assault.

"They better pray they're never a victim, because if someone was attacking them that way they would certainly hope someone would step forward and help, and it starts with stepping forward and doing something yourself," Ramsey said.

The second video is a more in-depth report of the assault by NBC:



See video of the hit-and-run incident referred to in the second video.
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Philadelphia Police Beating - Video - Defense Claims Mistaken Identity

We have the video of the Philadelphia police beating three shooting suspects after an auto chase. At least 15 officers were allegedly involved in the beating, and 13 have been removed from duty pending a police investigation of the incident.

Attorneys representing the three defendants claim that the police officers that were involved in the beating concocted a story that the defendants were shooting suspects so they could cover up a police error that the police mistook one of the defendants for another man sought in a cop killing from the previous weekend.

The first video is strictly a video of the beating with no audio to speak of:



Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey and Mayor Michael Nutter denied the cover-up allegations and said that officers legitimately pursued the defendants’ car after a triple shooting.

The lawyers claim that their clients, Brian Hall, 23, Dwayne "Lionel" Dyches, 24, and Pete Hopkins, 19, were not involved in any shooting. Instead, they said that police chased their vehicle and beat the trio because they believed that Dyches, who was a passenger in the car, was a man wanted in the fatal shooting of Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski.

Liczbinski was a 12-year member of the force who was shot in the line of duty last week while pursuing three robbery suspects and who was buried today.

If the lawyers’ claim proves to be true, the police officers involved in the beating incident could be facing some very severe charges.

The second video is some of the beating plus a reporter's version of the incident:


Philadelphia Police Beating

The beating, which was filmed by a Fox News TV affiliate helicopter, came after several police cars surrounded and blocked the escape of Hall, Dyches and Hopkins’ vehicle.

Three groups of officers then allegedly dragged the trio from their car and proceeded to punch, kick, and stomp the defendants and also beat one of the defendants with a night stick.

Rev. Al Sharpton suggested the beating was racially motivated and called it "worse than Rodney King," referring to a similar beating of a single black man by Los Angeles police officers in 1991. The acquittal of the police officers involved in that beating motivated rioters in the LA riots of 1992.

See the original Rodney King Beating Video from 1991

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