2 men arrested in sex assault near BART’s Bay Fair Station

BART police have two suspects in custody for allegedly assaulting an 18yearold woman as she walked near Bay Fair Station in San Leandro at 12: 20 a. m. Saturday.

The men are accused of forcing the woman into a car where they sexually assaulted her and drove to an unnamed location.

According to a statement the agency released Monday, the men took some of the woman’s possessions and forced her out of the car after the assault. She went home and called police later.

The transit agency had not named the suspects as of Monday afternoon, but spokeswoman Alicia Trost said they are from unincorporated Alameda County. The victim was taken to a hospital but had returned home by Monday afternoon.

“Percentagewise, you would expect crime to go down a lot more.”

Officer Keith Garcia, head of the transit agency’s Police Officers Association, on crime dropping 24%, ridership 87%

A report released last month by BART Police Chief Ed Alvarez showed that violent crime dropped 24% since last year at this time. But the number of riders on the transit system had plummeted far further — it was down 87% from last year as of Thursday.

“Percentagewise, you would expect crime to go down a lot more,” said Officer Keith Garcia, head of the BART Police Officers Association.

In this instance, however, the crime victim was not coming from the station — which was closed — or from the parking lot, Trost said. She was walking in a nearby neighborhood and happened to enter BART property.

Although BART is contemplating layoffs and service cuts as it confronts a $ 33 million budget shortfall, the agency’s Police Department still wants to fill about a dozen positions. On Thursday the board also plans to discuss doubling the agency’s unarmed ambassador program — a move to shift public safety duties away from officers as board members bitterly debate police reform.