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WATCH: The Moment a Fist Fight Turns Deadly in the Philadelphia Train System (and a Legal Deep Dive)

Aaron Walker  |  3:45 PM on January 05, 2024
AP Photo/Matt Rourke

First off, we’ll start with a content warning. What you are about to see isn’t gory. You don’t actually see the person die, technically. But you will see him fall off a platform and then a train roll in seconds later, and that might be upsetting:

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(Click on the word "here" in order to view the video.) Here’s more on the story:

From the article:

A man died after being pushed onto the tracks at a Philadelphia SEPTA mass tranist station on Thursday evening following an altercation with another man in the station.

According to NBC 10, officials said the incident occurred at the SEPTA platform for the Market-Frankford line at 34th and Market streets in the University City section of West Philadelphia at around 4:30 pm.

Video shows the two men arguing, with the taller man telling the other man to ‘give me back my lighter.’

The shorter man could be seen punching the taller man, pushing him off the platform and onto the tracks where a SEPTA train arrived seconds later, running the man over as onlookers screamed.

We would dispute their description of the video. It does not appear that the shorter man pushed the taller man onto the tracks. It appears that they were having a grappling fist fight and the taller man fell back.

Another article we read identified the shorter man as Chaz Wearing and said he has been charged with involuntary manslaughter:

The deceased has not been identified. We suspect they are trying to locate his family, first.

Our interpretation that Wearing did not ‘push’ the victim is not merely being nitpicky. That is crucial because it marks the difference between Wearing’s conduct being intentional or accidental. That is, if you intentionally push someone onto the tracks in front of an oncoming train, that is just intentional murder. Based solely on the video, it doesn’t look like that is what Wearing did.

No, it looks like the only intent Wearing had was to use non-lethal force—that is, they were in a fist fight. It looks like it was an accident that the victim fell onto the tracks. That can change if we get new evidence, but just judging by the video, that looks like an accident.

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And by charging him with involuntary manslaughter, it seems that the authorities agree. Here’s what that statute (18 Pa.C.S. § 2504, if you want to get law nerdy about it) says, in relevant part:

A person is guilty of involuntary manslaughter when as a direct result of the doing of an unlawful act in a reckless or grossly negligent manner, or the doing of a lawful act in a reckless or grossly negligent manner, he causes the death of another person.

So, basically, they think Wearing was reckless or grossly negligent, and that led to the victim’s death. And, if no defense applies, that seems like a slam dunk. It is dangerous to get in a fist fight on a train platform. You should avoid it if possible precisely because this kind of thing can happen.

But, as we just said, this is only reckless or negligent conduct if no defense applies. If we were his lawyer, we would be exploring the possibility that it could not be avoided because it was self-defense. For instance, the victim appeared to be grabbing Wearing and menacing him. Even though it appears that Wearing threw the first punch, you don’t have to wait until you get punched to defend yourself. Here’s what 18 Pa.C.S. § 505(a) says on the subject:

The use of force upon or toward another person is justifiable when the actor believes that such force is immediately necessary for the purpose of protecting himself against the use of unlawful force by such other person on the present occasion.

So, Wearing could argue that at that crucial moment before he threw his punch, unlawful force was being used against him (grabbing him), and that he believed more of such force would be used against him. You even see the victim do a feint, acting as though he was about to hit Wearing, but then holding back at the last second.

Mind you, we are not saying that Wearing could have lawfully intentionally shoved the victim on the train tracks. As the evidence stands right now, self-defense would only potentially apply to the decision to engage in a fistfight.

At the same time, it is crucial to look at the burden of proof. A little quick research suggests to me that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has joined many other jurisdictions in requiring that, first, the defendant would have to show evidence that would bring up the possibility of self-defense. But that evidence is obviously here in this case. Then, once that possibility is raised, the state of Pennsylvania would have to disprove self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt. Unless we missed some change in law in the last 11 years, that would appear to be the law as it stands today in Pennsylvania.

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And the prosecutors might be able to do that, because if you listen closely, Wearing and the victim are clearly arguing over a lighter and it appears that the victim is saying something like ‘give me my f—king lighter’ (curse word censored). So, a reasonable person sees that as the victim accusing Wearing of stealing his lighter. And the same statute that justifies the use of force to protect yourself has this to say about the limitations on that right (18 Pa.C.S. § 505(b)):

(1)  The use of force is not justifiable under this section: … 

(ii)  to resist force used by the occupier or possessor of property or by another person on his behalf, where the actor knows that the person using the force is doing so under a claim of right to protect the property,

In other words, self-defense doesn’t allow you to fight to hold on to stolen property.

But the problem the state might face is whether or not they can prove it was stolen. So, the argument might go like this:

STATE: You were reckless because you were fighting too close to the train tracks.

Wearing: I didn’t want to fight, but I had to, in order to defend myself.

STATE: Except the victim was trying to get back a lighter that you stole. That negates self-defense.

Wearing: Oh yeah? Prove that.

And when you think about it, that might be hard to prove beyond a reasonable doubt. Just knowing how ordinary people behave, it’s unlikely that the victim kept the receipt for the lighter—so how do you prove the basic claim that the lighter was the victim’s? So, if they can’t prove the lighter was stolen, then they can’t negate what otherwise appears to be a solid case for self-defense.

But that’s just based on the video. For instance, who knows what Wearing might have admitted to during interrogation—especially if he didn’t ask for a lawyer who would have almost certainly told him to shut the heck up? But, based on the video alone, there’s a pretty strong case for self-defense.

On to reactions:

Well, that was truly intentional murder on that show.

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We are kinder to the cameraperson. We think this person was trying not to draw attention to themselves before the man stumbled toward the train tracks. And when he did, maybe they just didn’t have the reflexes to react at all? 

We do have to step back and wonder if the victim was wise to get into this over a lighter. We won’t blame the victim as this Twitter/X user seems to be doing here, but it is quintessentially human to look at what others do and pick out mistakes that were made and to learn from them. The lesson a reasonable person can draw in this case is that while we would ordinarily stand up for our property, sometimes you have to recognize it just isn’t worth it.

We don’t think that the victim was ‘punched out,’ either, but otherwise that analysis seems reasonable.

It seems like the cameraperson saw that there was a physical altercation and turned his or her phone on in case it was important. That’s our best, most educated guess.

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We’re not sure that making it much harder to get on trains is the answer.

Cringe. We admit to engaging in gallows humor now and then, but that seems like a bad take.

We wouldn’t assume there was more video (but there might be).

Morbid, but no lies told.

We don’t think it was murder, and we have seen no evidence that race played any role in this. Still, we read Mary as suggesting that if the races were reversed, that is exactly what would happen and we are not sure she is wrong.

We honestly can’t tell if that is a joke or not. We doubt it would have made any difference in this case, anyway.

The full text says:

WARNING, GRAPHIC: On a SEPTA train platform in Philadelphia, 40-year-old Chaz Wearing, a homeless man who lives in the train system, punches an unidentified man causing him to fall onto the tracks as a train approaches the 34th Street Station.

The man died instantly.

Wearing is a parasite with a long rap sheet. According to the local ABC affiliate, ‘Wearing has a warrant for a strangulation case in Delaware County, and the D.A.'s office said his criminal history spans other Pennsylvania counties including Clinton County and Lycoming County.’

So why was Wearing allowed to essentially live inside the public transit system?

Locals say crime on SEPTA has spiked since the pandemic and has not improved. Why do blue cities insist on allowing violent indigents to terrorize the public?

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Naturally, we have no idea whether his claims are accurate, except that from what we read, he was not dead instantly.

Darkly close to the truth. This author is a fan of the Grand Theft Auto video game series. If you have never played any of the games in the series, they place you in a large city and encourage you to engage in complete mayhem. While the movie Free Guy isn’t literally about that series, it captures the chaos in those games pretty well:

One of the chief differences between Grand Theft Auto and reality is that whatever awful thing you do, even if you are killed, even if are stopped by the cops, you are almost always released from jail or the hospital within minutes like nothing ever happened. They might take your guns away from you and a few dollars as a fine, but otherwise, you are free to cause havoc all over again. You can have a massive police chase involving the actual national guard and get stopped by a tank … and then five minutes later, you are on the street and everything is normal. And, of course, nothing like that happens in real— …

… oh … nevermind. Jokes aside, it isn’t quite as bad as the Grand Theft Auto world, but with these catch-and-release policies in many states, it is closer to it than anyone should be comfortable with. Those video game worlds can be fun as a fantasy, but would be a complete nightmare to live in—which is pretty much the entire joke in Free Guy.

Finally, we leave you with this thought:

This is something we have been saying for years. For instance, if you throw a punch, the other guy might just take out a gun and kill you. Yes, that would almost certainly be a criminal act, murder, but that won’t make you less dead. It’s another reason why parents should teach their children never to start a fight—and only to fight in self-defense.

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***

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