Army veteran attacked on DART train, suspect arrested

Dallas - A man was attacked late Friday morning near the Uptown DART station in Dallas. Thirty-one year old  Shane Raftery, who is a former Army Ranger, was riding the train from DFW airport.

Raftery says sometime after 10a.m. he was heading to Uptown when he noticed a man who appeared to be homeless sitting a few rows ahead of him.

"It was kind of a distinct looking hat and he had two sweaters on, his jeans were torn up,” said Raftery.

Raftery says he did five tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and was never injured so he was shocked to suddenly get attacked on a DART train. He says as the train slowed down at City Place, the man got up and walked past him as if he were getting off.

“All of a sudden I just got struck in the head pretty hard. It took me a minute to gather myself,” said Raftery, who immediately stood up.

"He was pretty surprised that I stood up so he started running up towards the other cars basically. I don't know if his plan was hit me, grab my stuff and get off at that stop,” he said.

Raftery says he couldn’t get a cell phone signal so he had to go up two sets of escalators to call for help.

“That's where I saw a maintenance worker who saw a lot of blood coming down my head and my face. He said do you need help, I said yes. I'm holding my head with my hand and open my suitcase, grabbed a shirt and immediately started applying pressure,” said Raftery.

He required several stitches and says he knows the attack could have happened anywhere, but when it comes to future travel to and from the airport, Raftery admits he’ll use another form of transportation.

A DART spokesman says the suspect was arrested by DART police at Mockingbird station within 30-45 minutes of the report.

The suspect  is charged with assault.  The spokesperson says DART police regularly ride trains and buses and patrol all passenger facilities, adding there’s a full time security presence at City Place.