Atlanta

Man punched in the face by an Atlanta VA employee at VA hospital speaks to Channel 2

ATLANTA — A metro Atlanta man is speaking only to Channel 2 Consumer Investigator Justin Gray after he was punched in the face by an Atlanta VA employee at the VA hospital.

“She just hauled off and pop!” Scott Green said. “I mean, she bent my glasses, bent my nosepiece into my nose.”

Green says it happened in the parking garage at the Atlanta VA Medical Center.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

He was there, as he’d been every day for three weeks, to visit his ailing father.

“If she had to deal with a person with Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, or dementia, or in my case, my dad has all three, what would she do to him?” Green said.

A charging document from the US Attorney’s office obtained by Channel 2 Action News identifies the VA employee charged in the attack as Crystal Aggison.

Green says it started when he pulled crooked into a parking spot. He says Aggison yelled at him, so he straightened up the car and reparked.

TRENDING STORIES:

“I asked, ‘Do you work here?’ She was like, ‘No.’ I said, ‘Maybe mind your own business.’” Green said. “Then she came up and got in my face. She just stormed right at me and said, ‘Say it to my face!’ And I did, and she just went absolutely crazy,” Green said.

This incident took place in a parking lot at the Atlanta VA Medical Center on Aug. 2.

The VA confirmed the incident happened in a statement, writing:

“After a verbal argument about a parking space, the employee struck the visitor. VA Police cited the employee with disorderly conduct, and leadership is pursuing appropriate administrative action.”

This incident comes as another VA employee is already facing a six-count felony indictment for another attack at an Atlanta VA facility earlier this year. The VA finally fired the suspect in that attack, months after it happened in April.

In August, Channel 2 Action News confirmed that Lawrence Gaillard is no longer employed by the VA.

Gaillard was indicted by the Fulton County grand jury for brutally beating an elderly veteran on April 28.

He was charged with six felonies.

After Channel 2 Action News aired the surveillance video of that attack we obtained through a Freedom of Information Act Request, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough promised that it was an isolated incident.

“This is not reflective of VA employees across the country at all,” McDonough said.

Because this latest parking spot assault took place on federal property, the US Attorney will handle any criminal case.

Aggison is being charged with a misdemeanor in federal court. She has not been suspended or terminated from her job at the VA.

Green thinks she should not be permitted to work around veterans.

“Even when the police showed up the police were holding her back, because she still wanted to hit me. If I had walked out of the parking garage and punched her in the face, I’d be in jail right now,” Green said.

[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]

IN OTHER NEWS: