BART mob robbery under investigation
Police: Seven victims on platform, train after 40-60 youths invade Oakland Coliseum station
OAKLAND — Investigators on Monday were reviewing videotape from the Oakland Coliseum BART station, where a mob of 40 to 60 youths robbed train passengers Saturday night, punching some of them.
At least seven people on a Dublin-bound train and the platform were targeted, and two victims suffered injuries to their heads and faces and had to be treated by paramedics.
According to a BART officials, the mob jumped fare gates at the station at 9:26 p.m. Saturday and headed to the platform, where some boarded the train.
BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost said six people were robbed on a train and one on a platform.
One person lost a purse, another a duffel bag and the rest were robbed of cellphones.
Some victims were apparently punched but no guns or other weapons were seen, authorities said.
The attacks lasted less than 5 minutes and the suspects fled the station into the surrounding neighborhoods before police arrived. No detailed descriptions of the suspects were released and no arrests were reported.
BART said all the suspects were minors but did not give an age range.
The train was held for about 15 minutes while police conducted their investigation.
Trost said BART police would be working with Oakland police, Oakland school police and Oakland Housing Authority police to review video surveillance tapes in hopes of identifying suspects.
Of the train’s nine cars, only six had working cameras but the other three should receive replacements before July 1, Trost said.
Authorities said the mass robbery was the first of its kind in recent memory.
In the latest numbers available from BART, there were 162 robberies reported throughout the system in 2015.
The highest number before that was 213 in 2013.
In a Feb. 9 report to BART’s Operations and Public Safety Committee, officials said crimes against persons, which include homicides, robberies, rapes and aggravated assaults, were up in the last quarter (October to December 2016) and up from the corresponding quarter of the prior fiscal year.
Exact numbers in each of the crime categories were not released.
BART has 227 sworn police positions, but there are 21 vacancies.
Trost said BART had increased police presence for Oakland stations on Saturday night using overtime and that would continue.