EL CERRITO — BART police shot and wounded a young man at the El Cerrito del Norte station Saturday afternoon after officers responded to a report that he may have been armed with a gun aboard a train.
The man, who was transported to a hospital with “life-threatening injuries,” and as of Sunday morning was expected to survive, according to a BART spokesman, Chris Filippi. The young man was still in the hospital Sunday morning and “has not yet been booked” into jail, Filippi added.
BART Police Chief Ed Alvarez said at least one officer fired on the male rider, who had fled from police and then “produced” a gun as he stood in the station’s trackway around 2 p.m.
Officials, however, have declined to release many other details about the shooting, citing an open investigation.
The shooting comes amid concern about law enforcement in the transit system, as some riders worry about crime and a lingering mistrust of BART police over past shootings, all while a jury trial unfolds in the killing of 18-year-old Nia Wilson aboard a train in July 2018.
Alvarez said the person who was shot Saturday, whom police described as a male young adult, had suffered “life-threatening” injuries and was being treated at a nearby hospital as of the late afternoon.
The El Cerrito del Norte station remained closed into the evening Saturday as authorities investigated the shooting, while the Richmond station just north of it had no train service.
Officers were sent to the station when a passenger on a train bound for Fremont’s Warm Springs called authorities, saying she had seen two other riders in an argument, one of whom had “what she thought was a handgun in his waistband,” according to Alvarez.
When the train arrived at the El Cerrito del Norte station, Alvarez said, two BART officers “challenged” the male subject with their guns drawn. The person ran out of the train, down the station platform and then onto the tracks, Alvarez said.
What happened next is not clear.
“A gun was produced by the suspect and our officers ultimately shot,” Alvarez told reporters in a press conference outside the station.
But he declined to answer questions about what specifically that meant — for instance, whether the male pointed the gun at officers, or if the weapon fell out of his waistband — and whether one or both of the officers fired their weapons.
Alvarez said authorities were still reviewing footage of the shooting from station security cameras and the officers’ body-worn cameras.
Police said a handgun was recovered at the scene of the shooting.
Witness has questions
Melanie Turner, a preschool teacher from El Sobrante who was aboard the train, said she saw a young man run down the platform and out of her sight after the train arrived in El Cerrito. He was pursued by two officers, Turner said, and a young woman not far behind them.
Moments later, Turner said, she heard several gunshots, then saw the young woman. Turner, who appeared to fight back tears as she spoke, said the woman was screaming, “He’s only 17, he’s just 17.”
Authorities have not released the age of the person who was shot or said whether he was an adult or a juvenile, saying he may have been in his late teens or early 20s.
Although she did not see the shooting itself, and was waiting to learn more about it, Turner said she wondered whether it was necessary.
“As a person of color all you have to (do is) move these days and be considered a risk,” she said. “I just hope that justice is served and they figure out the why, because the why is a mystery.”
Turner said the person shot by police was black; BART officials have not disclosed his race.
Chief backs officers
BART police are leading the investigation into the shooting with oversight from the office of the department’s independent auditor, which dispatched staff to the station Saturday afternoon. That investigation could potentially lead to criminal charges against the officers involved in the shooting, though such charges are extremely rare.
But in his press conference, Alvarez said he supported how the officers handled the encounter.
“Our officers, I believe, reacted the way they were trained to react,” Alvarez said. “They got a call of a suspect that possibly was armed with a handgun and they responded accordingly and did a great job.”
Pressed on that statement, Alvarez said he had not seen video of the shooting, and had based his view on “what I have been told by the responding officers that showed up, as well and some of the witness accounts I saw.”
Ultimately, Contra Costa County District Attorney Diana Becton will review the shooting and decide whether the officers acted legally.
The Office of the Independent Police Auditor was one of several reforms to the BART Police Department instituted after one of its officers shot and killed 22-year-old Oscar Grant on the platform of Fruitvale station in 2009.
While that shooting led to Officer Johannes Mehserle’s conviction on a lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter, it has left a legacy of mistrust of BART police among some in the Bay Area that is still felt in debates over policing in the transit system today.
BART police have sought this year to ramp up their presence in stations and aboard trains as the agency works to stop increasing crime and declining ridership. Many riders have said fears about crime keep them from riding the BART system, particularly during off-peak hours on nights and weekends.
In the long shadow of Grant’s killing, however, the push to have a bigger law enforcement presence in the BART system has at times faced resistance from riders, police accountability activists and some BART board directors, who are concerned that more officers may not make everyone feel safer.
Saturday’s shooting is the first involving BART police since January of 2018, when Officer Joseph Mateu shot 28-year-old Sahleem Tindle outside the West Oakland station. Although Tindle’s family protested the shooting and called for Mateu to face criminal charges, Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley cleared the officer, finding Mateu fired because he believed Tindle was armed with a gun.
Check back for updates.
