SEPTA Police Chief Thomas Nestel gave a 3:30PM press conference regarding a video that emerged this morning of SEPTA officers pushing a man who was holding his young daughter off a train and arresting him on the platform Thursday. Nestel showed video from two files of the limited security footage of the incident available and issued commentary throughout.

A SEPTA cashier reported a fare evasion at Arrott Transportation Center (aka Martha-Orthodox Station) on the Market-Frankford Line and described the evader. Due in part to ongoing construction at Arrott, SEPTA has footage of the initial incident from only one angle.

Responding to the call, a 16-year transit police veteran with no prior complaints against him approached a man who fit the cashier’s description of the evader. That man was holding a child at the time. The officer questioned him about the fare evasion. The fare evader refused requests by the officer that he provide ID and get off the train.

Nestel said police gave testimony that the man did not pay his own fare. But according to Nestel, that doesn’t excuse how officers behaved, especially given the fact that a child was present.

The SEPTA Police Chief confirmed that the officer grabbed defendant by the throat. Asked if this was protocol,

“No, we don’t teach people to grab persons by the throat,” Nestel said.

Additional officers arrived to back up the first, who was at that time still engaged in conversation with the evader. But why so many officers? SEPTA was trying to get ahold of the engaged officer via radio, who didn’t respond. This prompted the Sergeant to send backup.

After the evader holding the child refused to get off the train a second time, officers tried to handcuff him. A struggle began with the child still in the man’s arms. The struggle subsided once police managed to handcuff the evader.

The first responding officer testified that he hesitated to simply walk away from the situation once it began to escalate for fear of disciplinary action by his superiors.

All this over $2.25 worth of SEPTA fare.

“I’m concerned about this entire episode. We can’t endanger the lives of little kids over fare evasion,” Nestel said. “That’s unacceptable and that’s on me.”

According to some reports, the man holding the child had taken her from her mother after a domestic dispute. Nestel disconfirmed these reports. The child’s mother picked her up at Huntington Station after the man’s arrest.

Nestel said he felt it was important that people see video of the incident. He also confirmed that an investigation by the Philadelphia Police Department’s Internal Affairs Division is underway.

Meanwhile, SEPTA cops want to stop being used as a way to scare kids.

“It’s not about him. This is about us,” Nestel said. “I’m not going to change how someone in the public deals with the police. I have to change how the police deal with the public.”

Nestel declined to release any involved parties’ names.

Following the press conference, members of the public such as Greg Brinkley of Racial Unity USA criticized the involved officers’ behavior.