Pregnant Teen Attacked by Strangers on Packed Seattle Bus

Surveillance cameras caught the attack on tape.

ByABC News
December 16, 2010, 3:11 PM

Dec. 16, 2010 — -- A busload of people did nothing to stop a pack of teen girls from beating a pregnant teenager and her boyfriend despite pleas from the victims that she was carrying a baby.

The behavior was caught on the bus' surveillance camera and later helped police in Seattle locate the five attackers.

"I'm shocked," said Sgt. John Urquhart of the King County Sheriff's Department. "The video is shocking to look at.

"The ferocity, the intensity, the unprovoked nature" is shocking, he said. "But what shocks me most is that these girls thought they could do this on a crowded bus with adults and do it with impunity."

Urquhart said that the incident, which took place on Nov. 19, occurred just after 7 p.m., at the height of Seattle's rush hour. Five teen girls -- ranging in age from 14 to 19 -- boarded the bus and immediately spotted the victim, Jessica, whose last name ABC News is not using to protect her privacy, and the girl's boyfriend.

One of the attackers ripped headphones out of the young couple's ears and the altercation began.

According to Urquhart, one of the suspects said that the boyfriend had stolen her cell phone.

"The female victim has never seen any of these five girls before and the male victim said he'd been at a party where one of the suspects had been," said Urquhart. "But he denies ever taking her cell phone."

On the video, a girl is seen using her leg to thrust kick after kick into the boyfriend's head and torso. Another girl quickly approaches, taking swing after swing at the pregnant teen. Then three others join in, the pregnant teen getting crushed into a handrail.

Jessica was three-months pregnant at the time of the attack.

"Basically, I was turned around [and] one of the girls hit me from the back," Jessica told KOMO-TV, ABC News' affiliate in Seattle. "I turned around to ask, 'Hey, what are you doing?' and then three of the other ones started hitting me."

Jessica said she screamed twice about being pregnant and overheard one of her attackers saying, "Nobody hit her in the stomach."