United Passenger Was Violent Says Police

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

The person responsible for the scandal that involved United Airlines after one of its passengers was dragged from one of its flights was the same passenger, says a Chicago police report that is far from the images that other travelers recorded of that incident with their mobile phones.

Based on the Freedom of Information Act, the Los Angeles Times was able to obtain that report. In it, agent James Long says the subject in question - Kentucky physician David Dao - was "aggressive" when asked to leave the ship and began to wrestle and flap his arms with a clenched fist until Long was able to hold him to get him out of his seat. According to the agent, "the passenger began to wave his arms and fight."

Long added that when Dao tried to hit him on the arm, he fell and hurt his mouth. Upon release of this report, the names of the four officers who attended this scene also came to light for the first time: Long, Mauricio Rodriguez Jr., Steven Smith, and Sgt. John Moore. Two of these officers had already been disciplined by the agency for incidents at work, according to public records.

For his part, Thomas Demetrio, Dao's attorney, dismissed Long's claims and called them "completely meaningless."

This official report is generating a new controversy around the incident, since it is far from the videos that other passengers on board the plane took. In these videos, Dao - who refuses to give up his place on a flight - is seen being removed from the seat by officers, banging his head against another seat, and dragged down the aisle of the plane.

The images were so shocking that the day after they went public, United Airlines lost more than $ 800 million in the value of its shares on Wall Street.