Auburn University announced today that the late-night Tiger Ten Tiger Transit service, operated by First Transit, will be contracting a firm to place security personnel on each bus.
In addition, all First Transit employees will be required to go through the Green Dot Bystander Intervention program by Oct. 30. Green Dot aims to prevent sexual assault and violence by training bystanders about situations that intervention is necessary in. Any additional employees hired by First Transit will also undergo Green Dot training.
A trained employee will also be monitoring the real-time camera system on the late-night buses in order to report any suspicious or dangerous activity to the Auburn Police Division. First Transit will also be working with the University to promote the TransLoc bus tracking system that students can use to communicate their transportation experience to the University.
The new security precautions were prompted by a report the Auburn Police Division received on Sept. 15 at approximately 11:50 p.m. of a male exposing himself while standing over a female in the 700 block of Aspen Heights Lane in Auburn.
Responding officers located the suspect, Tony Martin Patillo, 51, near the roadway and detained him, but were unable to locate the victim at the time of the initial report. Police initially charged him with four counts of public lewdness and took him to Lee County Jail.
Further investigation determined that an 18-year-old female student who appeared to be incapacitated entered a Tiger Transit bus near Magnolia Avenue. She was allegedly sexually assaulted in the back of the bus by Patillo, an employee of First Transit, while James Don Johnson Jr., 32, engaged in actions to perpetuate the crime.
Patillo later exited the bus with the female victim near Aspen Heights Lane, where he was observed standing over her by a bystander, Auburn police said.
On Saturday, Patillo was charged with first-degree rape and first-degree sodomy.
Johnson was driving the bus at the time of the alleged rape and was detained at his home the next night at 9:23 p.m. He was also charged with first-degree rape and first-degree sodomy.
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
