Apr 18, 2011

Union Newsletter Contains Account Of Danville Assault

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) union local that represents most Social Security employees has released its April 2011 newsletter, Unity, which contains this account of the recent assault at the Danville, VA Social Security field office:
In less than a minute, Anthony Burtt’s life changed forever.

A Service Representative in the Danville, Va. Social Security Office, he recently helped to subdue a man who allegedly stabbed security guard Jason Alsbaugh four times.

“I’d just come off break,” Burtt told UNITY, “and we were actually celebrating the guard’s birthday. I saw the suspect (Byron Clements) stab the guard in the neck and then I ran through the vestibule and hit the suspect in the head with my right elbow.”

In the melee that followed, a number of other people also came to Alsbaugh’s rescue, and Burtt remembers trying to get the guard’s handcuffs while Alsbaugh went to get medical help.

“He was bleeding pretty badly,” Burtt said. “He was really hurt!”

At that point, Clements apparently tried to run away, but Burtt hit him a second time with the back of his hand and the suspect fell to the ground, unconscious.

“Then he managed to get up again,” Burtt recalled. “He stood straight up and I was on top of him, and I’m a pretty big guy, so he was really strong.”

Clements then attempted another escape and it took three people to subdue him. He was eventually handcuffed, arrested by the police, and is now accused of malicious wounding.

Burtt, 38, is the Assistant Area Coordinator for AFGE. ...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Malicious wounding--what is that? What about attempted murder? A knife to the neck sounds like an attempt to murder to me.

Anonymous said...

Different states have different, often quaint, words that apply to various categories of crimes. That might mean first- or second-degree assault, for example, in, say, New York.