SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - While a mentally disabled man recovers from injuries he suffered during an assault at a UTA TRAX station, his mother is searching for justice and jail time for the attacker.
It happened Tuesday afternoon at the Millcreek Station at 33rd South and 200 West. We spoke exclusively to the victim, Chris Huntsman and his mother, Kathy Huntsman about the incident.
When you look at Chris Huntsman's face its easy to understand why it hurts right now. The 30-year-old, who is developmentally disabled, says when he accidentally bumped into another rider, the rider intentionally hit him. "The guy was like this. He said, come on, you going to fight me or what?" Chris says he walked away, but his mother says it didn't help. "The guy came after him and hit him right in the left eye."
Chris needed a trip to the hospital and a couple of stitches afterwards. His mother needs justice. "I'm pretty ticked off that someone is capable of doing this to people. This shouldn't have happened."
While Chris, who has the mental capacity of about a 5-year-old, doesn't seem that upset about the ordeal, his mother is worried about her son and everyone else who rides the trains. "They need to feel safe in the community and be able to ride TRAX."
She says UTA officials told her that their surveillance cameras caught the suspect on tape. "They've got a really good picture of him on camera at the TRAX stations." We asked UTA about the photo and video, but Gerry Carpenter, the UTA spokesman says right now investigators are not releasing it to the media. "At this point we are still reviewing the details of the case. We continue to investigate this aggressively."
Carpenter says UTA's priority is rider safety. "We want people to feel safe and secure on UTA, that's why we have a full fledge police force that can investigate these types of criminal behaviors." And those police investigators believe they can find and arrest the assailant in the coming days.
The suspect is described as having be bald headed and having tattoos. Contact UTA if you have any information that could help in the investigation.
