He's Not a Monster

Family’s response to Attack on the Philadelphia Subway

Thursday, September 11, 2008

By BARBARA LAKER

When Thomas Scantling tore out of his mom's Olney house last Thursday night with his 6-year-old son, he was delusional and paranoid, convinced he was being followed. He heard voices, believed his phone was tapped, that people were stalking him, his mom, Toni Frazier, said yesterday. She called him on his cell phone, but he didn't pick up. So she called her daughter, Kim Frazier, to see if she could reach him. Eventually he answered, Kim said. It was about 12:45 a.m, about half an hour after Scantling, 26, apparently bludgeoned a 20-year-old stranger with a hammer on the Broad Street subway train. Scantling told her he was at Broad and Girard. When she and her aunt picked up Scantling and his son, they saw a hammer poking out of his backpack.

They didn't notice blood. "He was ranting and raving about the FBI, the CIA," Frazier said. "I tried to get him calmed down," Frazier said. "He was trying to hurt himself with the hammer." She called cops to place him in a mental hospital, she said, and they did. It wasn't until Tuesday that a friend of the family recognized Scantling in a still photograph from a graphic video of the attack of Dewayne Taylor and called Kim, who called the cops.

"I let them know it was my brother, but he's not in his right mind," Kim Frazier said.

"I want people to know my brother is not a monster. He's a good, loving sweet person, but he's mentally ill. He's one of the sweetest people you'd ever meet. He always says how much he loves his family.

"But he's very ill. He's not a monster." Taylor's mom, Tracie Taylor, sees it differently.

"He didn't even look at my son. He didn't know him. He couldn't even tell if he was red or purple. Now that's a cruel person," she said.

"He tried to kill my son, then he took his own son and left. That's not psychotic. That's not insanity. If he was insane, he would have left the boy. They're just trying to justify it."

Kim Frazier, 32, of Oxford Circle, said Scantling lived with her for more than three years and moved in with their mom about eight months ago. She and her mom said they have tried to get him help for years. "No one would do anything about it," Scantling's mom said. He was in and out of mental hospitals the last couple of years, Kim said. A few weeks ago, she and her mom had him committed to Charter Fairmount Behavioral Hospital, but he was there just four days, Kim Frazier said. At a mental-health hearing, "We begged them to not let him out," Frazier said. "There's no way he's healed. We were afraid he'd hurt himself or someone else." Scantling is in police custody, charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault, simple assault and related charges.

He also has a lengthy criminal record. He's been arrested six times with charges that include rape, drug possession, firearms and theft offenses. In most cases, the charges were either withdrawn by the prosecution or dismissed by the court. He was to face trial tomorrow on a marijuana-possession charge stemming from a May 23 arrest. But that case will be postponed until Scantling's mental health is determined, said Cathie Abookire, spokeswoman for the District Attorney's Office. For the hammer attack, $1 million bail was set yesterday. Scantling doesn't remember the attack, his sister said. "He couldn't believe it. He didn't know what we were talking about," she said. The video shows Taylor, a lab technician at the University of Pennsylvania, dozing after a long day at work on a seat of a subway car, headed home to East Germantown.

The man identified as Scantling stands with his son in front of the subway car doors. He says something into his son's ear, kisses him on the cheek and directs the boy to an open seat. Then he reaches into a backpack, pulls out a hammer and bashes a sleeping Taylor on the head. Over and over. Taylor tried to fend him off. At least 10 other passengers watched but did not make any attempt to help or intervene. In fact, one bystander apparently chose to take advantage of the horror. The passenger stole Taylor's cell phone that fell to the floor during the attack, and sold it to a teen on the street for $150.

Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey criticized passengers for not helping the man. "They better pray they're never a victim, because if someone was attacking them that way they would certainly hope someone would step forward and help, and it starts with stepping forward and doing something yourself," he said. Taylor said a female passenger sat with him after the attack and took him to Temple University Hospital. He received eight staples to his head, six stitches on his neck and was treated for a broken finger." I am so very sorry this happened," Kim Frazier said. "I'm so thankful this young man is not dead."

Directions: After watching the news report on the attack in the Philadelphia subway in September 9, 2008, read the article “He’s not a Monster.” Then answer the following questions based on your understanding of the article. Respond in complete thoughts and full sentences.

1. How does the family's story of the perpetrator alter your perspective on the events described in the first article or shown in the video? 

2. How did this article change your judgment? If not, how do you explain the new information?