Dec 7, 2007 8:39 am US/Eastern
Woman Assaulted By 9 Teens On Transit Bus
BALTIMORE (WJZ/AP) ―
It's being called a deplorable act, and now nine teens are facing charges in the beating of a woman on a city bus.
Gigi Barnett reports, the results were bloody.
Broken bones, bruises, and swollen eyes were on Sarah Kreager's face in a picture obtained from WJZ's newspaper partner The Baltimore Examiner.
Police say the beating happened on a city bus.
"From all the information we received now, this was an unprovoked attack," said Col. John Garvilis of MDTA.
Maryland Transit Police say an argument of some kind broke out between Kreager and the teenagers, all 14 and 15-year-olds.
Investigators say when Kreager got on the bus, the teens wouldn't let her take a seat, and when she did sit and wouldn't move, the nine students began punching and kicking her.
"This is the, to my memory, an incident that occurred of so much severity that we were outraged over it," said Garvilis.
But school leaders say there is some conflict in exactly what happened. That's because one of the teens said Kreager spit on her.
Transit police say surveillance video could clear that up.
"There was tape on the bus...we're actually pulling that right now to see what if anything it reveals," said Garvilis.
School leaders say the nine teens have been banned from those buses and suspended from class
"Nine of the juveniles have been charged as juveniles with aggravated assault, and we are continuing the investigation. We are looking for one more individual that we're trying to identify," said Garvilis.
Transit police review crimes on city buses every week. They say this beating is one of the worse they've ever seen.
In a letter to Eyewitness News, Mayor Sheila Dixon says the incident was deplorable and reducing juvenile crime is essential to improving public safety in Baltimore.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
