BART had missed threats, claim says
Just days before Nia Wilson was fatally stabbed in the neck last month at an Oakland BART station, two other female passengers were threatened with a similar fate by the same man, according to attorneys for Wilson’s family.
A man at Civic Center Station in San Francisco looked at one of the women and slid his hand across his neck to imply he would slit her throat, while another woman in a separate incident saw a man brandish a knife on a train, the attorneys said.
John Lee Cowell — a transient and frequent BART passenger charged with murdering 18-year-old Wilson — was the man in both incidents, attorneys said. Despite the women’s efforts to alert authorities of Cowell’s threats, attorneys said, no BART personnel could be found in the station.
Attorneys for Wilson’s family revealed the allegations Friday morning, the same day they filed a claim against the transit agency, a precursor to a lawsuit expected to be filed in a few months.
Wilson’s killing was a simple case of cause and effect, according to the claim. If BART authorities had maintained the standards required to keep riders safe, attorneys said, Cowell wouldn’t have been on the MacArthur Station platform on July 22. And if Cowell weren’t there, Wilson would still be alive.
“Nia’s death is not some horrific anomaly that occurred in two seconds that nobody could do anything about,” attorney Robert Arns said Friday. “There’s a serious and endemic public safety problem on BART, and just about everybody who rides BART knows that.”
Wilson’s family, dressed in “Nia” T-shirts, sat behind the attorneys and dabbed their eyes as Arns spoke to reporters. Among the family members present Friday were Wilson’s sisters Letifah and Tashiya, who both saw their sister die on the BART station platform. Letifah was stabbed in the neck as well but survived.
The family declined com-
ment Friday.
In an emailed statement, BART spokeswoman Anna Duckworth said the agency expresses its “deepest condolences to the family and friends of Nia Wilson.”
“We have not yet been served and we can’t comment on pending litigation, but we can say that safety is our top priority and we remain committed to do all we can to ensure a safe trip for our riders,” Duckworth said, adding that the agency is investigating the additional claims of threats made by Cowell.
Wilson’s death capped off an especially violent week for the transit agency, marking the third fatal attack on BART property in five days.
The wave of crimes prompted officials to roll out a blueprint they say will make the rail lines safer. The plan includes adding police patrols on BART trains, installing emergency call boxes, and speeding up construction that would make fare evasion more difficult.
The correlation between fare evasion and BART crime is central to the Wilson family’s claims against the transit line. Arns said experts will testify that, in other large cities, mass transit crimes are most often committed by those who dodge payment. There is no known study on this correlation in the Bay Area, Arns said.
BART has a history of failure to take action against fare evasion, according to the claim. Attorneys pointed to a 2017 figure released by BART officials, which noted that about 22,000 people sneak through the fare gates every day.
The looming suit says Cowell should have been apprehended after either of the two threats — one of which was apparently reported to police at a later date — or he shouldn’t have been allowed on the platform at all if he didn’t pay his fare.
The suit will seek three things, attorneys said: transparency when it comes to criminal activity on BART property, a new system to prevent fare evaders, and “just” compensation for Wilson’s family.
Attorneys did not specify a dollar figure, adding that would be up to a jury to decide.
This week, BART officials told The Chronicle’s editorial board there is a correlation between crime and fare evasion. But they said they didn’t know whether Cowell evaded fare on the evening of July 22, though he was cited for the same offense days earlier.
A BART spokeswoman did not respond to the same question Friday.