MSP baggage handler assaulted on light rail while riding between terminals to work

A United Airlines baggage handler who was assaulted without warning while riding the Blue Line between terminals at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport said he felt lucky he wasn’t hurt worse.

Kirk Lemieux, a 23-year United employee, said he was looking at his phone at 10 a.m. Friday while riding from Terminal 2, where he had parked his car, to his job at Terminal 1, when a man stood up and punched him in the face.

In a daze, Lemieux said, he saw his assailant turn back and yell not to mess with him, using an expletive. He said the man grabbed his cellphone and slammed it to the floor, then dashed off the train. Lemieux said he had no idea who the man was.

“It happened so fast, I didn’t have time to react,” he said in an interview Saturday. “I couldn’t see out of my left eye for a few moments. ... I was scared because I had no idea what the guy was going to do next.”

A co-worker who was on the train followed the assailant up an escalator into the airport, where the man was arrested by MSP police.

After Lemieux was treated for his injuries, he identified the man as his attacker. Metro Transit spokesman Drew Kerr said the agency was investigating.

Rick Paulson, a United customer service lead and member of the executive committee of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 1833, renewed the union’s longstanding call to the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) to let employees for United, American and Spirit airlines park in the Silver Ramp at Terminal 1, which he said is often empty.

Instead, Paulson said, the workers must park at Terminal 2 and take the train to Terminal 1. He said the trip often makes them late for work and can expose them to troublemakers. Employees for other airlines and the federal Transportation Security Administration park at Terminal 1, he said.

“It’s been getting better,” Paulson said, as when Metro Transit ambassadors ride the train to address violations. “But now we have an actual incident. We can’t be armed; there’s really no way to protect us, and there’s space at Terminal 1 for employees.”

In a statement on Sunday, the MAC said the safety of airport employees was a “top priority.” It said the presence of airport police officers, who assist Metro Transit, has increased on the light rail in recent years.

“We will continue our conversations with Metro Transit about how we can support their work to ensure rider safety,” the statement said.

Lemieux, whose eye was swollen shut from the assault, said he won’t be able to work for a few days. When he returns, he said, he won’t have any choice but to take the train again.

“I really hope they can come up with some kind of alternative” to the train, he said. “I’m very, very nervous and uncomfortable about taking the light rail. I’m going to be on the alert all the time when I’m on it now.”