Subway Hammer Attack Suspect Identified – Police Expect Arrest

Surveillance Video of Subway Hammer Attack

UPDATE – SUSPECT ARRESTED

Police have arrested a man suspected of brutally attacking a dozing subway passenger with a hammer while other riders did nothing to stop the assault, the city’s police commissioner said Wednesday.

Thomas Scantling, 26, of Philadelphia, was charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault and related charges, police said.

Scantling, who was taken into custody in a mental institution late Tuesday, has a lengthy record of rape and other convictions, Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey said on NBC’s “Today.”

The victim was treated and released from a hospital.

Ramsey criticized other riders for standing by when the assailant entered the train with his 5-year-old son, directed the boy to a seat, calmly pulled a hammer from a backpack and attacked a man dozing in a nearby seat.

At least 10 other riders were in the car, yet no one interfered as the attacker repeatedly struck the victim in the train car and later out on a platform, Ramsey said on “Today.”

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Police said a surveillance video released Monday helped them identify on Tuesday the man who carried out the attack while accompanied by a small child.

Police said they know who their suspect is and they know his whereabouts. They hope to have a warrant for his arrest within the next few hours.

Investigators are still trying to figure out what lead up to the apparently unprovoked attack and why it took place in front of a 6-year-old child, who accompanied the attacker.
Police said 10 passengers saw the attack, did nothing to stop it and did not call 911.

“Who is this creep? Let’s get him off the street,” SEPTA’s Richard Maloney said during a news conference.

SEPTA officials pulled no punches as they reacted to the brutal beating of one of their subway passengers with a hammer last week on the Board Street Line.

The entire beating was caught on SEPTA’s newly-installed surveillance cameras.

“Someone’s going to identify this creep, and he’s going to get arrested,” Maloney said.

Police said Tuesday that several people did identify the suspect from the high-tech, digital video and authorities are close to an arrest.

“We believe we will submit a warrant to the DA’s office this afternoon,” said Capt. Sharon Seaborough, of the police department’s Central Detectives division.

Police said the attacker, accompanied by a little boy, boarded the train at city hall. So did the victim, 20-year-old DeWayne Taylor. After the attacker directed the child to sit down, he reached into a bag, pulled out a hammer and viciously beat Taylor.

“I was hit with a hammer in my head, neck and in my hand,” Taylor told Fox 29 News.
The beating spilled out onto the platform, where Taylor said the suspect tried to throw him onto the tracks.

“I got seven staples in my head, six stitches in the back of my neck and a broken finger,” he said.

“There were a lot of people there who stood around and did nothing,” Maloney said.

“Ain’t nobody stopping him,” one woman said. “He’s swinging the hammer, shouting something about Allah,” witness Pam Williams said.

At least 10 people saw the attack. No one called came to Taylor’s aid. He got back on the train, got off at the Allegheny station and walked to the Temple University Hospital.

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