LOS ANGELES _ The chief executive of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority on Wednesday said he was "extremely disappointed" by a Los Angeles Police Department sergeant's treatment of a young woman who was pulled from a subway train and detained because she refused to take her foot off a seat.
"Our riders deserve better," Phil Washington said in a statement. "We want the Metro system to be a safe environment for everyone. I expect more from our law enforcement partners."
Bystander video of the incident was posted to Facebook on Monday and follows a recent police crackdown on code-of-conduct violations on trains. Such violations include eating, drinking, vaping, gambling, littering and placing feet or shoes on seats.
The LAPD began a use-of-force investigation Monday after receiving a complaint about the incident at the Westlake/MacArthur Park station, Deputy Chief Bob Green said. Two women were detained in the incident.
"This investigation is still under investigation, but I want to be clear: This is not the kind of policing I want in our system," Washington said.
The Metro system is patrolled by multiple agencies, including the LAPD, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, the Long Beach Police Department and Metro security personnel, the transit agency said.
The confrontation this week began when the LAPD sergeant approached a young woman about having her foot up on a seat.
He told her to get off the train. After she refused, he grabbed her arm and pulled her off as she clung to a railing. She complained that the lawman wasn't allowing her to get her cellphone and other belongings.
Once off the train, the sergeant held her arms behind her back. People in the station gathered around, and an onlooker video-recorded the entire encounter.
When people protested, saying the woman was only 18, he responded, "I don't care."
Onlookers swore at the sergeant, telling him he was engaging in an "abuse of power." The young woman swore at him too.
He kept asking her for identification. She said she had been on her way to the Department of Motor Vehicles to meet her mother and get an ID because she had just turned 18.
"This is not (expletive) fair that you took me off the train because I had my foot there because I was comfortable like that," she said. "There is no law that tells me that I cannot sit that way because I paid to be in there."
"It's the rules of the train," he told her.
A second woman approached and began yelling at the sergeant, telling him he was "high on power right now because people are watching you." The sergeant called for backup, and at least six additional officers arrived.
As both women were being detained, the second woman _ not the one who had her foot on the seat _ spat at one of the officers.
The woman who put her foot up was cited for loud and boisterous conduct on a train and released, while the second woman was arrested on suspicion of battery on a police officer, Green said.
When asked about the incident at an unrelated event in North Hollywood on Tuesday evening, Mayor Eric Garcetti said investigators are reviewing multiple videos of what happened.
"Videos can sometimes tell one picture," he said. "We'll have the videos that the officers had as well as the videos that were made."
He said he expects courtesy from riders, as well as law enforcement officers, on the trains.
"I hope we can all do what is courteous, and that means abiding by the ridership rules and just making sure that somebody can sit because having your feet up on the chair denies them," he said. "And vice versa that police officers use whatever is the lowest level of deescalation. That's my general philosophy."
The 28-page Metro Customer Code of Conduct lists all infractions on public transport vehicles, as well as their penalties. The punishment for placing feet and shoes on a vehicle includes a warning or ejection from the bus or train.
(Times staff writers Doug Smith and Laura J. Nelson contributed to this report.)
