Teen killed and sister wounded in train station stabbing attack

OAKLAND — A felon on parole fatally stabbed an 18-year-old woman in the neck and wounded her sister as they exited a train at a Northern California subway station in what police said Monday was an unprovoked attack.

Bay Area Rapid Transit Police Chief Carlos Rojas said officers are scouring the area for John Cowell, 27, who is suspected in the Sunday night attack at the Macarthur Station in Oakland.

Rojas said surveillance video on the train and at the station's platform showed Cowell had been riding the same car as Nia Wilson, 18, Lahtifa Wilson, and a third unidentified sister, but they did not interact.

As the group got on the platform, Cowell quickly attacked them. Nia Wilson died at the scene and her sister Lahtifa Wilson was wounded, Rojas said.

"It looks like it was an unprovoked, unwarranted, vicious attack," Rojas said.

Surveillance footage showed Cowell fleeing the station through a parking lot and stripping off his clothes there. Detectives recovered a knife they believed was used in the attack at a nearby construction site, Rojas said.

The women's father, Ansar Mohammed, said one of his daughters called him, crying hysterically, and told him to get to the Macarthur station.

"I get here and I see all the police and ambulance and I ran up the platform and I see my youngest daughter laying up on their tarp, dead," he told KTUV through tears. "I want justice for my daughter. I want justice for my daughter. Please, help me get justice for my daughter."

Rojas said that Cowell, who he described "as a violent felon who is currently on parole," was cited for fare evasion on July 18 and his photo was captured by an officer's body camera.

BART officials released that image and another one from surveillance video that shows him at Macarthur station Sunday night dressed in a white and gray sweatshirt and carrying a backpack.

Cowell recently completed a jail sentence for his conviction on a 2016 robbery in Contra Costa County. He also had prior arrests in Alameda County, as well as warrants out for his arrest, the East Bay Times reported.

The chief said investigators were trying to determine what led to the attack. They have no information it was racially motivated, but they are not discarding that as a possible motive, he said.

Cowell is a white male who is 5 feet, 8 inches tall and weighs 190 pounds, authorities said. He has short, dark hair, a closely cropped beard and a mustache. The Wilson sisters are black.

"Up to this point, we don't have any information that it was race-motivated, but we can't discard it," Rojas said.

Officers on Monday were watching several addresses for him in two counties, but he is also listed as homeless, Rojas said.

Cowell is considered dangerous. BART officials asked anyone who comes into contact with him to call 911.