A Los Angeles man who almost died in a violent attack on an LA Metro train urged elected officials to increase public safety and law enforcement presence across the transit system.
72-year-old Stan Slokosky said he was assaulted on a Metro train two years ago after attending a church concert in Pasadena.
“A woman behind me sat down and said, ‘You’re blocking my view.’ And I just ignored her,” recalled Slokosky, adding the confrontation with the random passenger escalated to unimaginable violence.
“She had a canister of what the detectives told me was gasoline, and she sprayed it on me.She had a lighter and set me on fire,” he described.
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Slokosky said he spent seven weeks in the hospital and three months in a nursing home after suffering burns on his face and upper body along with second-degree burns on his arms.
“I didn’t realize how badly I was burned at the time,” the man said.
His attacker was arrested but has yet to stand trial, according to court records.
Slokosky said he did not have to see the latest Metro report, which notes a surge in total crimes with the Metro system, to believe riding the public transit has become more dangerous than the harrowing experience two years ago.
“I think it is worse now,” he said. “A few years ago the only unsafe area was what they called the Blue Line, which was in between Los Angeles and Long Beach.”
Slokosky, who has no other means of transportation due to his bad vision, said navigating the Metro has become an exercise in vigilance.
“I think there's a lack of law enforcement presence,” he said. “I kind of watch how people are behaving. If I see someone behaving erratically, I try to get away from him.”
