Friday morning, police officers arrested a suspect in the recent fatal 24th Street BART stabbing.
BART and San Francisco Police officers identified the suspect as Richard Henry Visor, 42, according to a BART press release. Visor has not yet been charged with a crime.
“This arrest is a huge win for our riders, and once again demonstrates the effectiveness of our network of surveillance cameras and working collaboratively with our partner agencies,” said BART Police Chief Ed Alvarez in the release.
BART, the release said, has “a network of more 4,000 working cameras throughout the system in stations, on trains, in parking lots, and in plazas.”
“BART surveillance cameras captured an argument between two adult males in the plaza near an elevator on August 28,” according to the release. “Video shows one of the individuals stabbing the other.”
BART has yet to release the footage, and the release did not explicitly name Visor as the man caught on the video cameras at the plaza. Visor is from Colorado Springs, Colorado, and worked as a sanitation worker in Hunters Point, according to social media.
On the afternoon of Sunday Aug. 28, an argument broke out on the northeast BART plaza between a man and 28-year-old Jabaree Harris over $50, a witness told Mission Local.
The man stabbed Harris, who later walked down the stairs and collapsed face-down near the Millbrae/SFO platform. Two BART officers were present at the fare-gate level during the attack, but apparently did not notice or aid Harris until a young passenger called attention to the collapsed victim, according to witnesses.
Harris, who peddled shoes and clothes among other vendors at the plaza, later died from his injuries. He is survived by a daughter and his partner.
Harris’ killing is the latest example of increasing violence and chaos at the 24th Street BART Plaza, which is used daily by vendors who sell anything from sundries to bottles of liquor.
The plaza has become a flashpoint in the community over the conditions and access to public space.
A few days before the fatal stabbing, other Mission residents and longtime vendors recounted getting extorted or accosted at the plaza during a community town hall. One elderly Latino couple recalled being threatened with a gun.
Over the summer, city officials erected a temporary fence to deter vendors who sell stolen items but, late last month, activists took it down. It has remained down.
Next week, the city will start enforcing its new vendor permit system, and vendors who cannot prove ownership of their goods could have their items confiscated. Activists have denounced the new permit system, citing it will pit vendors against each other and hurt some vendors’ business.
Out of more than 60 applications that have been submitted, at least 28 have been approved.
This story is breaking and may be updated.
The 24/Mission chaos is a direct result of the sweeps in the Tenderloin.
Sweeps are not a solution. They just move people to a new location. And that new location is the Mission.
For nearly 30 years I commuted on BART and never felt afraid. So glad I’m retired.
“Activists have denounced the new permit system,”
Is there anything — anything at all — in this city that looks like progress that has NOT been denounced by activists?
Cameras are extraordinarily helpful in solving (and deterring) crime.
SF should employ this technique more broadly — as they do, quite effectively, in London and other civilized/lower-crime cities.