By Terry Miller
Pasadena spokeswoman, Lisa Derderian, has confirmed that a city employee is now on paid administrative leave after a serious altercation was taped via cell phone on July 3, in a Target parking lot.
The city employee appeared to refuse to let a woman leave her parking spot by blocking a city car behind her SUV. The Pasadena employee then repeatedly lectured and harassed the woman about her driving skills.
“We take this matter very seriously and have initiated an investigation, “ Derderian told Pasadena Independent Friday.
The cell phone video of the city employee using his city car to block a woman in a Target parking was posted to YouTube and grabbed the attention of several local news outlets.
The man in question admonished her for several minutes for allegedly cutting him off in a parking lot.
The man was driving a Pasadena Building and Safety vehicle.
The female driver allegedly cut him off, so he blocked her in. As well as blocking other motorists. The incident lasted at least ten minutes.
He parked his city vehicle directly behind the woman’s car, completely trapping her and not letting her leave. Then, he proceeded to give her a lengthy lecture, telling her, “You need to learn how to drive.”
“I didn’t know you had to be so rude and so mean,” the woman told the city worker.
Then, the bystander shopper who filmed the incident said, “You can’t block her.”
The suspect’s reply was: “I can do whatever I want.”
“Uh, you cannot, just because you have a building and safety….you’re not the f—— cops,” one woman was heard saying in the YouTube video.
The clearly frightened female driver, who had a child with here told the city employee…”If I made a mistake and I probably did…So I’m going to admit I made a mistake and I’m very sorry,” said the woman, who was sitting inside her car while the man stood near her vehicle.
He continued to shout at the woman, and when a Target security guard approached him, he yelled at him, too, saying, “Who are you to tell me what to do?”
When the guard told the man he’s on private property, he said, “I work for the city…so you’re telling me that I can’t come in here and do my job?”
Pasadena spokeswoman Lisa Derderian confirmed the man is a city employee and the city is investigating the matter. She declined to identify him because it’s a personnel matter, but she said he is on administrative leave pending the investigation.
