In a viral movie on social media you can see how the 21-year-old Dexter Lotz is almost thrown off the Muni-tram in San Francisco Friday night by two men whose names have not been announced.
The young man has played music on the tram set via his smartphone, and that was not to the liking of the two attackers.
In a first video, one of the men keeps Lotz in a hold, while several other passengers say he has to leave the boy alone. “Tell him to stop,” the attacker responds.
On other images there are two men who see the boy cracking out through the door of the tram set, while the boy is screaming loudly and trying desperately to hold onto the door frame.
The videos were sent to the world via Twitter by journalist Anna Sterling. “Whoa these two men just tried to throw this kid off the muni tram because he was playing music too loudly. He easily could’ve hit oncoming traffic. This is not okay” she writes. The images caused quite a stir on social media.
Whoa these two men just tried to throw this kid off the muni train because he was playing music too loudly. He easily could’ve hit oncoming traffic. This is not okay. pic.twitter.com/NYIZilSmNL
— Anna Sterling (@AnnaMSterling) August 31, 2018
They’re attempting to throw him onto the street. You can see it clearly here. He’s just a kid. This is not okay. pic.twitter.com/BGT3kado26
— Anna Sterling (@AnnaMSterling) August 31, 2018
Smartphone thrown out
In a later interview Lotz himself explains that he indeed played music through the speaker of his smartphone, when he was confronted by a man with a hat and a beard. The man has stared at him before, according to Lotz because the music was too loud.
Eventually it came to a discussion and the man attacked. A little later, Lotz also began to fight back, after he almost lost consciousness on several occasions. “I have never experienced anything like this before. Things became black, I could not see anything”, he said in an interview with Mic.
Later, the attacker got help from a second passenger and they tried to work the young man out together. When the tram stopped at the tram stop, they threw out his skateboard and his smartphone, a Samsung Galaxy S9. At the end of it, Lotz eventually moved away to find his possessions.
Law enforcement
The police came to the scene after the incident and is conducting an investigation. Both Lotz and his attacker have decided not to file a complaint. “I do not want to concern myself with this,” explains Lotz.
“Although this was pretty bad, I am just as interacting with people like him.” The third man has not yet been identified.
