Man who created massive D.C. commuter nightmare had good reason. 5 year old left on platform [View all]

[Liberal_in_LA]

turns out that the hapless guy who brought the Washington, D.C., subway system to a halt actually had a pretty good excuse for pulling the emergency release.

The unidentified man left thousands stranded during Tuesday's evening rush hour after he stopped a Green Line train, pried the doors open and ran off with a young girl in tow. Twitter and Facebook lit up with loathing posts, including calls for his execution.

But according to a fellow commuter, the man pulled the cord because his son, who appeared to be about 5 years old, was left standing on the platform when the train doors closed, the Washington Post reported.

"I saw the father was hysterical," said rider Jackie Queen. "Everyone was running to the emergency stop to stop the train … There was probably seven or eight people pulling the emergency stop. Everybody was trying to get him off."


The little boy was screaming and pounding on the door, she said. And the father, accompanied by his daughter, was also banging on the door.

Queen said she saw the child standing by himself. "The fear in his face, in the little boy's face, your heart just really went out to him," said the woman, who was visiting D.C. from Alabama, the paper said.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/man-halted-metro-traffic-good-excuse-article-1.2303253