BART takeover robbery: 40 to 60
teens swarm train, rob weekend riders, by Demian Bulwa, 4/24/17, San Francisco CA
A recent string of
robberies on BART trains took a frightening turn when dozens of juveniles
swarmed an Oakland station over the weekend and commandeered a train car,
forcing passengers to hand over bags and cell phones and leaving at least two
with head injuries, witnesses told the transit agency.
The incident — the first
of its kind in recent memory — occurred around 9:30 p.m. Saturday at Coliseum
Station. According to a police
officials, witnesses said 40 to 60 juveniles flooded the station, jumped the
fare gates and rushed to the second-story train platform. Some of the robbers
apparently held open the doors of a Dublin-bound train car while others
streamed inside, confronting and robbing and in some cases beating riders.
The juveniles “committed
multiple strong-arm robberies of bags and cell phones,” said a police summary
prepared after the incident. “At least two victims suffered head/facial
injuries requiring medical attention.”
Alicia Trost, a BART
spokeswoman, said Monday that seven robberies had occurred — with victims
losing a purse, a duffel bag and five phones. Six people were robbed inside the
train car, with a seventh confronted on the platform, she said.
The attack was quick,
police reported, and the teenagers were able to retreat from the station and
vanish into the surrounding East Oakland neighborhood before BART officers
could respond. The train that was hit was held for about 15 minutes as
authorities investigated the crime and tended to the injured.
“We are in the process
of pulling all surveillance video and we will share with Oakland police,
Oakland Unified School District and Oakland Housing Authority to see if they
can help identify the minors,” Trost said. “We have had success with sharing
images of juveniles with this group and identifying and making arrests in the
past.”
ART announced
that it has hired a new police chief who worked previously in Southern
California. Candice Nguyen reports. Media: KTVU The images cannot be shared
publicly, she said, because the suspects appear to be minors.
BART
is also checking with Oakland police to see if any other incidents Saturday
night — such as a big house party being broken up — might shed light on the
identity of the suspects.
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A
series of robberies on BART trains in recent weeks has prompted the agency to
increase patrols — though this was apparently the first takeover-style heist.
The
incident is likely to present a challenge for BART, which hired a new police chief last week. The agency has struggled to contain fare evaders, and is in the midst of installing surveillance cameras in train cars after The Chronicle reported that most of the existing cameras were
decoys.
Demian Bulwa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff
writer.
Comments
Lawless
States like California will continue to cling to political correctness and the
media will continue to censor news reports to avoid being “racist”. This
article does confirm that public transit is as dangerous as university campuses
have become in California.
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