By Greg Bluestein
Associated Press
ATLANTA — The family of a 14-year-old boy who was stabbed to death at a downtown Atlanta train station after ringing in the new year at the city’s Peach Drop celebration claims an officer ignored his pleas for help.
A lawsuit filed this week in Fulton County Superior Court by the family of Rueben Hand claims MARTA officers did nothing when he told them a man was following and threatening him. It said minutes later, the assailant approached Hand from behind and slashed his throat.
MARTA spokesman Lyle Harris declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Hand’s family said the teenager was trying to get on a MARTA train when a man accused him of stealing a cell phone. An argument broke out, and he was killed.
Authorities have charged 36-year-old Tommy Christopher Collins in the killing.