Suspect charged with murder, carjacking
Jermaine Brim, 39, is accused of killing Oliver Williams, 49, while on BART train
DUBLIN » The man accused of fatally stabbing a father and soon- to- be grandfather on a BART train was charged Thursday with murder, carjacking and attempted robbery.
Jermaine Jeremiah Brim, 39, was arrested Tuesday in connection with the fatal stabbing of Oliver T. Williams, 49, who also went by Tyrone Hodges, on Tuesday afternoon on a BART train in Hayward.
Brim made his first court appearance Thursday afternoon at the East County Hall of Justice in Dublin. He did not enter a plea and refused to step in front of a podium from a holding area for his initial arraignment. He refused to show his face to the courtroom, hiding it with papers in his hands. His family was in court but did not want to speak to the media.
After allegedly trying to steal a sleeping person’s shoes on BART and stabbing Williams, Brim appeared to have gone on a crime spree and tried to carjack two people, according to a probable cause declaration by BART police Officer Ronald Rodriguez. Brim was charged with murder, two counts of attempted second- degree robbery and two counts of attempted carjacking.
Williams had tried to stop Brim from stealing the shoes of another passenger who was sleeping Tuesday aboard a Warm Spr ings- bound train around 1 p.m., authorities said. The two men got into a struggle, and Williams pulled out a knife to stop the thef t , according to court documents . Eventually, Brim got control of the knife and stabbed Williams multiple times, authorities said. Williams died on the train.
According to court documents, Williams was stabbed multiple times in the neck.
Brim then allegedly went to a car dealership next door and tried to grab the keys from an employee to steal a vehicle, but the car did not start, police said. He then ran onto the street and stopped a vehicle, and tried to take that car but was unsuccessful.
Police were able to find Brim and arrest him on Tennyson Road on Tuesday near the South Hayward BART station a short time after the stabbing. He was shirtless, still barefoot and was trying to wash blood off his body and clothing at a gas station, according to court documents.
BART officials said Brim recently had walked away from a San Leandro hospital and was labeled as a “missing person at risk” sometime before the crime.
He was also out on his own recognizance in connecdtion with an offense from San Francisco Superior Court, according to court papers.
Williams was about to become a grandfather to a little boy, his daughter said in a Facebook post.
“If you knew anything about him you knew he loved showing off his daughters!! My dad loved us & gave us his last!!” wrote his daughter Destiny Louis on Facebook.
“Somebody took his life for helping. He died being a good Samaritan. He loved helping people, but now where is our help?”
Others online described him as an uncle, nephew and father. A GoFundMe was started by a family member online, hoping to raise funds for his funeral.
“He was only trying to help someone,” said the fundraiser creator, Sharon Boyd, online.
Williams was a musician who loved playing dominoes and watching the Oakland Raiders, said Rose Cardoza, a Pittsburg woman who met Williams when the two of them were high schoolers in Fremont. Over more than three decades of friendship, Cardoza said, he was practically a brother to her, a son to her mother and a father to Cardoza’s children.
“Life isn’t going to be the same,” said Cardoza. “He is greatly missed.”
Like others who knew him, Cardoza said Williams was a family man who believed in living an honest life and would not just stand by if he saw someone taking advantage of another person.
“He was always a protector,” she said. “He stuck up for people a lot, so this makes me really sad, but I’m not surprised.”
“I’m sure he didn’t think twice,” Cardoza added.
Gary Williams, his brother, in an interview with media partners KGOTV, said his brother gave his life for someone else.
“He was a hero for what he did,” Gary Williams said.
“He always told me to always tell people that you love them before you hang up the phone. Because you never know when you’re not going to see them again,” his brother said, tearing up in the interview.
Gary Williams and his sister Joyce were present Thursday in the courtroom but did not comment.