Man pushed to ground by former United employee speaks out for 1st time

HOUSTON – It's the chaotic scene at Bush Intercontinental Airport that has ignited a firestorm of controversy.

A 71-year-old Houston grandfather was pushed to the ground by a United Airlines employee.

"I made a reasonable request and less than 30 seconds later, I'm out cold with a head that hurts like the dickens and a concussion," Ronald Tigner said.

Now, for the first time, the man seen lying on the floor at the United Airlines ticket booth is talking about the incident.

"I used absolutely no racial epithets, I made absolutely no threats," Tigner said.

Tigner, now 73, said all he did was ask two United customer service reps to help him print a new boarding pass.

One of those people was Alejandro Anastasia, who claims that Tigner was abusive, was shouting profanities and racial slurs and deliberately stepped on his foot and threatened him.

Tigner tells a completely different story of what the two men said to each other before he went down.

"He was smiling and smirking and I told him, 'I really don't appreciate you smirking,' and all of a sudden he said I'm going to kick your bleeping, bleep," Tigner said. "And I passed him and all of the sudden he just goes like that (shows pushing motion) and the next thing I remember, I remember sort of stumbling back and I remember hurting."

Tigner said that not one United employee bent down to help him.

"They just don't care, they don't care about the passengers," he said.

Download the Click2Houston news app in your app store to stay up-to-date with the latest news while you're on the go.

Sign up for KPRC 2 newsletters to get breaking news, sports, entertainment, contests and more delivered straight to your email inbox.