EDMONTON – A vicious, unprovoked and ultimately fatal attack Friday on an LRT passenger continued even after the train’s driver used the public address system to warn the aggressor that police were on their way.
The assault, on a moving northbound LRT train, lasted six minutes, police said Monday. It started after the train left the Coliseum station around 1:50 p.m. Friday and continued until the train was stopped at Clareview.
Hollar was already unconscious by the time the train reached the Belvedere station, but officials decided to have the train carry on to Clareview, in part because the presence of another train near Belvedere could have delayed police and emergency responders from getting to the scene.
Edmonton transit officials say their decision to seal the doors and allow the savage beating to continue offered the best hope to save the victim’s life.
“Sometimes we have to make these decisions. That’s the nature of our reality,” said Ron Gabruck, the security chief for Edmonton Transit, told reporters Monday.”
They had to make a tough call: keep the train at the station with the doors open and hope the attacker gives up the fight, flees and can eventually be caught; or seal the doors and continue on three minutes to the next station at Clareview, where police and first aid were close by.
Gabruck said the train driver was ordered to drive on to Clareview. For the next three minutes, the beating continued in the otherwise empty car, visible on the driver’s monitor.
“It’s all about safety and quick response. And when I mean safety, I mean the safety of the victim as well,” said Gabruck.
“We knew the ambulance stations are very close to Clareview as is the police station. We knew we had resources that could step in and help at that location, and so the decision was made.”
When the train arrived at Clareview, the accused was arrested by police and transit officials while trying to escape.
Inside the car, the 29-year-old Hollar was found unconscious on the floor with severe brain injuries.
Hollar was dispatched to hospital and put on life support, but died Sunday night. An autopsy was slated for later Monday.
It’s the first homicide on Edmonton’s light-rapid transit train in its 34-year-history, said Gabruck.
He agreed it was distressing event for the train car driver to go through, but said, “He’s doing OK under the circumstances.”
The victim, 29-year-old John “Jonny” Hollar, died in hospital on Sunday night after being taken off life support.
A charge of second-degree murder is pending against Jason Newborn, 29.
“From the beginning of the fight to the end, it seemed very one-sided …,” Edmonton Police Service homicide Det. Colin Derksen said Monday. “It appears that Mr. Hollar was just trying to avoid the situation and get away.”
Police and transit officials said the attack against Hollar happened while about a dozen passengers looked on.
Two tried in vain to stop the violence, but officials didn’t divulge details of their actions. The LRT driver watched the entire attack through a closed-circuit security camera, but was also unable to stop the assault.
Officers believe the two men may have known each other, but are still working to establish the connection.
“We don’t know what motivated Mr. Newborn to attack Mr. Hollar, but we see nothing to show that other people were the targets or they could have been the victims of this as well …,” Derksen said. “It was directed at Mr. Hollar.”
Ron Gabruck, director of operational support for Edmonton Transit System, said the attack took place in the last car of a three-car train and began as the train left Coliseum station at about 1:50 p.m.
Other passengers made emergency calls to alert the motorman. Gabruck said the driver spoke to the assailant through a speaker, telling him that police had been called and on their way, but the assault continued.
Other passengers fled the train when it stopped at Belvedere station, but the suspect remained on board and continued to beat Hollar, who was by then already unconscious, Gabruck said.
Gabruck said a decision was made by ETS control dispatchers to continue another three minutes to Clareview, which would give better access to police and emergency medical responders.
The suspect ran from the train at Clareview and was stopped by an EPS officer, the LRT driver, and an ETS security officer.
Newborn is known to police, and has a long criminal history. He was slated to make his first appearance in court on Monday.
Hollar’s uncle, Russell, has said Hollar’s family is “absolutely devastated,” telling the Journal: “He is in our hearts forever.”
Hollar was described by a friend as a fun, confident man who loved to laugh, cared deeply for his friends and family, and was “always looking out for everybody before himself.”
Gabruck said all ETS security procedures and protocols worked as they were supposed to during and after the attack, and that the decision to carry on to Clareview – even knowing the victim was seriously injured – was “absolutely” the right one in the circumstances.
Despite the alarming nature of the highly public, daytime attack, Gabruck said Edmonton’s LRT and bus systems are a safe way to travel. He stressed that serious incidents are “extremely rare.”
He said criminal incidents are down about six per cent from last year, and have been continuously declining in the last three years. Hollar’s death is the first time there has been a homicide on-board a train since the LRT started running in 1978, he said.
“At this point, it seems like everything was followed the way we expect it to be followed,” he said. “Our systems worked properly, and there was a successful outcome to a rather unfortunate event.”
Gabruck also said other passengers did the right thing in alerting authorities, and that now “they need to be good witnesses.”
Derksen said some of the passengers on the train have not yet come forward. He urged anyone who witnessed any part of the assault to call police.
There have been some serious incidents involving the LRT in recent years. In November, a man was thrown onto the tracks of the Churchill LRT station after an argument with three strangers. The 49-year-old victim was assaulted and kicked back down onto the tracks when he tried to climb to safety. Other passengers intervened to help the man. Three men have been charged with attempted murder and aggravated assault in that incident.
In February 2011, police shot and killed a teenager after a series of violent robberies at the Coliseum LRT station. In that case, a woman passenger had a knife held to her throat by one of a group of robbers, and a man was slashed with knives and beaten when he refused to give the teens money. One of the teen robbers, Cyrus Green, was shot and killed by police after he lunged at an officer with a bat and a knife.
In May of 2010, Heather Thurier was killed after being shot in the head with a sawed-off rifle inside the Stadium LRT station after a brief argument. The shooter, Colton Ferguson, is now serving a life sentence for second-degree murder.
Hollar’s death is the city’s 29th homicide of 2012, taking into account a fatal police shooting on Dec. 11.
With files from Dean Bennett, The Canadian Press
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