MetroLink passenger attacked, robbed at Delmar station asks, 'Why is there no help?'

ST. LOUIS • A man robbed and attacked at the Delmar MetroLink station on Tuesday night said there was no security guard to help him, and a few bystanders nearby simply watched.

“Nobody was there, no guard. Why is there no help?” said Jason Charney, 33, of Florissant. Charney suffered a broken left ankle. He is to undergo surgery next week.

Police have released surveillance images that show several youths or young men wanted in the robbery. Charney was attacked and robbed by several people after he got off a MetroLink train at the Delmar stop about 9:45 p.m. Tuesday in the 600 block of Rosedale Avenue.

They punched and kicked him, and one took his cellphone and wallet. The attackers then ran off, heading northwest on Hodiamont Avenue.

Metro spokeswoman Patti Beck confirmed that there was no security guard on the platform when the attack happened. She said a security guard was patrolling another area of the Delmar Loop station, at street level, at the time. Five minutes after receiving the call, a Metro public safety officer was at the scene, Beck said.

She said Metro is helping St. Louis police with the investigation.

“Security on MetroLink has become a regional priority and the safety of the transit-riding public remains the top priority of Metro transit,” she said in an email.

Charney said he was on the train, scheduling something in his phone, when one of the young men grabbed his phone and ran out. Charney wasn’t supposed to get off the train until the Hanley station, but he ran off the train, too, and chased the man.

“I was shouting, ‘Thief, thief, thief!’ trying to get the attention of the guard, and the guard wasn’t there,” Charney said. “There were at least a couple people there. The majority were bystanders. They did nothing.”

Charney said he was knocked to the ground, and someone hit him in the jaw a couple of times, stomped on his ankle and rummaged through his pants pocket to take his wallet. After the attack, one bystander offered to let Charney use a phone to call his parents.

Anyone with information about the attackers is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 866-371-8477.

Beck said three police departments — St. Louis police, St. Louis County police and the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department — are responsible for policing MetroLink in their jurisdictions.

Metro last year asked city and county police to put more uniformed officers on MetroLink trains and help with other security initiatives, such as adding more undercover officers, Beck said. But crimes like the one on Tuesday night are uncommon, she said.

“The number of violent incidents on the Metro system is very small, especially when compared to the total number of riders using the Metro system each day,” she said. “While Metro operates a safe transit system, we are not immune to crime occurring in the region.”

St. Louis Crime Tracker

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