A man wearing a balaclava and pacing up and down a BART train this afternoon slashed a fellow passenger across the back with a meat cleaver, and caused more than a dozen other riders to scurry away in fear, according to a witness to the scene.
Police arrested Charles Johnson, 24, near 1 p.m. as a suspect in the attack, according to a BART statement. Johnson was booked on two charges: Assault with a deadly weapon and robbery, along with violation of his probation. He allegedly attempted to steal the victim’s backpack, which was recovered, alongside the cleaver, at the scene.
The victim, who is 25 years old, was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries. James Temple, a journalist who was in the car with the suspect, said the the victim was taken away on a gurney, seemingly in good spirits.
Temple described a man holding a rectangular butcher cleaver pacing up and down a BART car on an eastbound train in the Transbay Tube. He said he initially saw a passenger at the end of his car “jump out of the way” of the cleaver-wielding man, and then “all kinds of people trying to jump away.”
“Everyone started running through the cars, trying to get as much distance between themselves and this guy as possible,” he said. Temple said people were cowering in their seats, “trying to get as close to the edges of the BART cars as possible” as the man walked back and forth in the aisle.
“I jumped out of the way once, and landed partially on a woman who was sitting,” he added. “I was just trying to get away.”
The passengers then fled between cars to the front of the BART train, where Temple said they congregated in a group.
“When we got to the very front, we ran out of cars to run through.”
At this point, the dozen-plus passengers, communicating with the train operator, were “just asking the operator to go faster, we just wanted to get to West Oakland, we wanted to get out,” Temple said.
Temple then realized another passenger was injured. “One guy said he had been bludgeoned by him, but in the end looks like he got slashed by the back.”
When the train arrived at West Oakland Station, Temple said the operator saw the cleaver-wielding man leave the train via camera, and shut the BART doors behind him. BART police arrived “within minutes,” Temple said, and attended to the victim.
A BART spokesperson said normal service had resumed by 1:30 p.m. The stopped Antioch-bound train temporarily caused delays.
“I’m not gonna lie, man, it was pretty scary,” Temple said. “When you actually see someone walking up and down BART with a cleaver — it was scary, and I and everyone just wanted to get as far away from him as possible, which is hard to do on a BART in the middle of the tunnel.”
This story has been updated with a statement from BART police.
And BART wonders why ridership is not returning to pre covid levels..
Its not safe
I’m amazed/disappointed that AI is not being used by BART police to immediately let them know when there is lots of commotion on a train. normally people just stand and sit. when large numbers of people are suddenly moving around and one passenger is holding a large knife, I would hope that everyone at BART knows that immediately and is reacting. the tube presents problems, but they must have action plans. ?? I’d love for the writer to follow up on that with BART police. if they don’t have a system set up, they should.
they’ve got plans and resources, but I doubt fully staffed to implement properly:
https://www.bart.gov/guide/social-resources
the editorial decision to downplay this as a “rough commute” on twitter was quite crass and insensitive.
PERFECT EXAMPLE OF WHY BART IF FAILING. I have absolutely no sympathy for BART going under. What does it take for BART to get this! Clean it up, make it safe, get the mentally ill crackheads it’s of there ….. or close the mobil heated free drug use homeless encampment that you are calling public transit! Wake up!
What, exactly, would you have BART do? Be very specific.
Saw someone casually sharpening their machete on the muni T line stop by UCSF a few weeks ago. More enforcement of public safety in public spaces please!
Whatever happens with this guy, do not release him out in the general public! He has violated probation already and will do it again. He needs to stay locked up for everyone’s safety!
Wishful thinking on your part….
Rode BART from Glen Park to Embarcadero or Montgomery from mid Eighties to early 10s and even if I stayed late I never felt unsafe. So sad.
SFist led with “A new poll suggests that it’s not remote work, but safety and lack of cleanliness keeping people off of BART. But the survey is from a business group with a history of somewhat dubious polls.” regarding this recent Chron article about BART. https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/new-poll-calls-bart-hire-police-recover-riders-18088800.php
It’s so easy to distinguish who rides BART and who never rides BART. I used to love BART. BART has been essential in my life. I now consider BART disgusting and scary and use it as a last resort mostly to traverse the bay when no other options exist. BART cops are much discussed and advertised but rarely seen on the trains or in the stations. Hey BART management, clean up BART and keep the drug using/addicted and mentally ill unhoused people off of BART or BART will die. It’s that simple.
…,this is why we don’t take public transit anymore. ‘Want to fix San Francisco? Zero tolerance for assaults.
A few days ago I saw a deranged person going after someone with a hammer. Thankfully the other person was able to get away. This happened at the Bart station on 24th and Mission. The Bart janitor saw this and just walked away… guess he is used to this kind of craziness on a regular basis. It is becoming difficult to keep riding Bart even though some of us don’t have a choice.
Another example of the open air mental institution that is the Bay Area. Mental health in this country is inadequate this is true. It’s also true grest society would be better with this lunatic behind bars.
Klay please pick your shots
The tone of this article represents the absolute delusion that pervades this city and its politics. “It was kind of scary man.”
Imagine the way you die is being slashed to death my a mentally ill tweaker in a sealed metal tube.