MATA guard investigated after chase

Latest incident involving passengers

A Memphis Area Transit Authority passenger was restrained and peppersprayed in an incident under investigation by an organization of Memphis bus riders questioning the use of force by private security officers.

On Sept. 4, security guard Sheryl Holbrook chased a passenger several blocks from the William Hudson Transit Center property, according to a police report.

MATA safety manager Yuri Chambers, who drove to help the guard, restrained the passenger and Holbrook sprayed him “excessively,” said Shelia Williams, a MATA board commissioner.

The Memphis Bus Riders Union, which works to improve transit conditions, is investigating the incident, one of three since May involving confrontations between security and MATA passengers.

On Aug. 14, two children suffered from “spray blowback” when a guard sprayed a passenger with a “chemical agent,” according to a police report.

And on May 6, a passenger suffered injuries that ultimately proved fatal when authorities said a guard pushed him off a bus.

Williams, who is also co-chairman of the Memphis Bus Riders Union, described the guards’ relationship with

passengers as “totally adversarial.”

The manner in which guards have been approaching passengers has escalated situations instead of defusing them, Williams said. “With the death of one passenger, it’s really sensitive right now,” Williams said.

MATA general manager Ron Garrison called in the security company’s top management after the Sept. 4 incident. He said they are working to “look at ways of minimizing this in the future,” by defusing situations and approaching and talking to customers.

On Sept. 4, officials alleged, passenger Jeremy Horton, 28, caused a disturbance on a bus, threatened the guard and attempted to board another bus. When Holbrook approached him, he threw a bag of soap at her, striking her in the chest, according to a police report.

He fled on foot and she chased him from the terminal at 444 N. Main several blocks to Thomas Street and Jackson, where he was pepper-sprayed.

Garrison said Chambers saw the guard “in peril,” and “it took both of them to restrain (the passenger) and the pepper spray happened in the process.”

Horton was transported to Regional Medical Center for treatment for the pepper spray and arrested on suspicion of assault.

He was being held on $5,000 bond on a warrant for theft under $500 and violation of probation from a domestic assault conviction.

Chambers was temporarily placed on paid administrative leave for a matter of hours. Holbrook, an employee of MATA contractor Ambassador Worldwide Protection Agency, was removed from MATA facilities, while the incident was investigated, according to MATA.

“The security guard clearly overstepped her boundaries by leaving the property,” MATA said in a statement on Monday.

Garrison said Thursday that Chambers and Holbrook are back to work.

“I am very, very impressed with Yuri,” Garrison said. “I think that he acted in a commendable way. ... He went to someone that was in distress. He went above and beyond what is required of him.”

MATA board member Williams said having a confrontation with the man blocks off of the property “was not the proper procedure.”

In August two children, ages 11 and 3, were bystanders to a dispute between a security guard and a MATA passenger when they were affected by pepper-spray, according to a police report.

The guard, Ezet Patterson, told passenger Sheronia Jones, 36, not to walk in the bus lane, according to the report. During a confrontation, the guard sprayed her.

The guard, who no longer works in security at MATA, alleged that Jones pushed her in the face with her finger.

Two children “although not directly sprayed with the chemical agent, did suffer from the spray blowback and were transported to Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital by (Memphis Fire Department) unit 31 for observation,” according to the police report.

Jones was transported to the Regional Medical Center and arrested on suspicion of assault.

Adicus Mitchell, a guard with MATA’s previous contractor, Pro-Tech Security, was charged with aggravated assault resulting in the death of 69-year- old passenger James “Semaj” Gray, who was pushed off the bus in May and died in August. A witness said the guard pushed Gray when he wasn’t getting off the bus quickly enough.

Pro-Tech’s contract expired July 31 and Ambassador Worldwide Protection Agency guards took over at the terminal.