Investigators are still working to determine exactly what happened when a BART police officer shot and killed a man in San Francisco’s Civic Center Station Sunday evening.
BART spokesperson Linton Johnson says that a “wobbly drunk” on the platform of the Civic Center/UN Plaza Station was reported to BART police dispatchers at 9:30 pm Sunday night.
Two officers, whom BART cannot name due to the the California Peace Officers Bill of Rights, arrived on the platform at 9:45 PM.
“One minute later,” says Johnson, “the officers reported shooting the suspect.” According to the Ex, Johnson said that the number of shots fired or which officer — or both discharged their weapon or weapons was as yet unclear.
The man BART police shot was reportedly armed with a knife, Johnson says. One of the BART police officers “is suffering from cuts and bruises on his arm” as a result of the incident, he says.
Paramedics took the man who was shot to an area hospital (the Ex says it was SF General), where he was pronounced dead an hour later, Johnson said.
“At this point,” Johnson said early Monday morning “police don’t know much about the suspect except that he is a white male.” The two officers involved in the shooting are white and Asian. Both will be questioned by investigators, and have been placed on administrative leave.
As of this morning, investigators do not know if the man BART police shot was the same person originally reported as “wobbly and drunk.”
Shortly after the shooting, BART police investigators say they found glass from what appears to be a shattered bottle and knives at the scene.
Johnson did not provide any details from possible station video camera footage, nor did he say if the officers involved in the shooting were one of the 60 presently equipped with Tasers.
The BART Police Department and the San Francisco Police Department are both conducting criminal investigations. BART Police Chief Kenton Rainey is expected to hold a news conference at 10:30 am Monday, at which more details of the investigation are expected to be revealed.
The Civic Center station is expected to reopen at 8 am Monday, as trains are running on a Sunday schedule for the July 4 holiday. It had been closed all of Sunday night, following the shooting.
According to Johnson, this is the sixth shooting by BART police that has injured or killed someone since 1972, the second since former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle shot and killed Oscar Grant on January 1, 2009.
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