January 18 (RIA Novosti) - It wasn’t his face but his distinctive jacket – caught on surveillance video – that led to the arrest of a US man suspected of beating a woman and tossing her onto the tracks at a Philadelphia subway station this week, police say, even though the video wasn’t released to the public right away.
"I really wanted to catch this guy and I truly felt that the best way to do that was to hold onto information about his jacket and put as many officers as I could to catch him and it worked," Chief Thomas Nestell of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) told reporters Thursday.
"It worked," he added.
William Clark was arrested Thursday and remained in jail Friday.
The video – released after the arrest – is gripping.
It shows the man approaching a 23-year-old woman Tuesday afternoon, seated on a bench along a near-empty train platform. Police say he asked for a cigarette light.
The video shows the man backing away and then brutally attacking the woman, beating her, pulling her by one ankle and then tossing her casually onto the tracks.
He grabs the woman’s cellphone, and turns to leave.
As he walks past the surveillance camera, his multi-colored jacket with the words “Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resorts” is clearly visible.
The victim was able to climb back to the platform before a train approached, and was not seriously injured.
Two days later, "A sergeant from the transit police observed this individual and he was apprehended still in possession of the victim's phone and wearing that jacket,” Nestell said.
Clark has been charged with aggravated assault and recklessly endangering another person.
