BART police detained a woman at the 24th Street BART Station this morning, after a train operator mistook her torch lighter for a firearm, the agency’s police officers said.
Sofia Velasquez, who said she was coming from Lafayette, said she was arriving at the 24th Street station holding a white torch lighter, which looks similar to a tiny pistol, when four officers charged at her. They surrounded Velasquez and handcuffed her.
“I just had the lighter out, they walk up and say, ‘Put your hands on the ground,’” Velasquez said. “I just see them coming all deep … they drew blood. I was just confused, like, ‘What’s going on?’”
Police could be heard shouting for Velasquez to stop just after 10 a.m., and Velasquez could be heard crying out in pain as passengers in the station looked on. Trains were stopped for several minutes and skipped over 24th Street station, proceeding towards Glen Park or 16th Street.
“There’s no firearm, please let me go!” Velasquez could be heard saying as officers searched through her large suitcase.
After Velasquez was released and Mission Local began interviewing her and taking photos of her bloodied wrist, BART officers approached to also photograph and document her injury.
“We got called to a female who possibly had a firearm and put it in her suitcase or backpack,” said BART police officer B. Lopez, one of the four who detained Velasquez with zip tie handcuffs.
Even after officers had searched through Velasquez’s suitcase and backpack and identified the lighter, Lopez said the officers detained her for a few additional minutes to check her identity with dispatch.
“We still have to proceed with how we encounter a firearm,” Lopez said later. Lopez told Mission Local that Velasquez was on probation. Officers released her moments later.
Trains resumed at 24th Street by 10:13 a.m.
Four cops to handcuff a harmless woman for carrying a lighter but when it comes to catching the real criminals, they’re short staffed. I wonder how many of these 4 cops were on overtime!
I’d like to see a transcript of the 911 call- does is really mention that she put it in her backpack, or was that an excuse made up on the fly for searching her backpack without justifiable cause?
Definitely a bummer of a situation, but I don’t know what the expectation is of people who carry objects made to look like guns around in public is. Do they expect people to know that it isn’t a gun? And that police should just take your word for it right off the bat when you say it isn’t? Get real, leave your novelty lighter at home.
Had it been a novelty lighter in the shape of a gun they would have identified it as such specifically. They said it looked similar to. Phones have also been referred to in this way. Regardless, I would rather they investigate events than not but I don’t get how they drew blood. Also, I think it is smart to repeat multiple times that you don’t have a gun if you don’t because shit goes bad fast. It doesn’t mean she expects them not to continue the search, just make sure you represent the situation from your perspective for the body cams. I could well be wrong but I imagine you’re white.
What I expect the police to do is to release the person after determining no crime was committed. Instead, it seems like they extended the detention without justification just because they wanted to know who she was. That is not legal and we should expect better of our public servants.
Wrong. It does not imitate a gun. In fact it doesn’t look like it at all. It’s a tiny torch. They are in the very general shape of a pistol. Meaning it has a grip where you hold it and a long end where the flame comes out. That is all. In no way does it imitate the look of a gun. Cops are just idiots.
Meanwhile hundreds of people jump the fare gates on a daily basis, junkies smoke meth and fentanyl openly on trains, homeless use the trains and platforms as sleeping quarters, women are harassed… and this is the priority.
Happens to me all the time when I walk around in public with my prized torch lighter.
Why do you think this tiny incident is news, while you haven’t covered at all the gangbanger who killed two people in the Mission, then stood on the steps of City Hall pretending to be a reformed criminal and embraced one victim’s mother?
He was convicted and sentenced to 33 years in prison. One murder happened at 24th and Capp, a block away from this tiny incident you think is news. But you don’t think Fernando Madrigal’s sentencing is news?
https://sfstandard.com/2023/12/07/san-francisco-gang-member-reformed-sentenced-madrigal/
I believe I know why — because you can criticize police in this tiny BART incident, but not for successfully catching a DOUBLE MURDERER IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD. Which would seem, to me, to be bigger news.
Candace —
There’s no conspiracy. We simply missed the sentencing. We should’ve been there; we covered his arrest and wrote about his victim Day’Von Hann.
With that said, your allegation that there’s some conspiracy here — that we’re trying to minimize Madrigal’s arrest and conviction in order to further our anti-police worldview — is just crassly stupid.
We’ll try to do better. How about you, too.
Yours,
JE
I once got on a BART train and there was a guy with a machete strapped to the thigh of his camouflaged pants. I told the train operator; she shrugged and said, “Oh, is he on my train now?” Bottom line, I’d rather BART police investigate these reports and pay attention. I know it was inconvenient for the woman police detained, but that’s sometimes what happens in our society. Personally, I don’t think anyone should be brandishing a lighter inside a BART train. But she got sent on her way. BART police did the right thing. Wish there was an officer stationed at every, um, station.
While a torch lighter differs from a gun, I wouldn’t want to be burned by one of those. The passengers were right to call the police, as there was no legitimate use case for carrying a torch lighter IN YOUR HAND around the station or on the train.
Was her Bart ticket valid?
“We still have to proceed with how we encounter a firearm” said the officer to explain why the detention continued EVEN AFTER DETERMINING THERE WAS NO FIREARM. Nobody needs to even try and make these people look like fools. Just point a camera or a microphone at them and let them demonstrate. It would almost be funny if they didn’t carry guns and sometimes shoot people for no good reason.
Wondering why the writer takes a picture of a little blood but not a picture of the lighter..hmmm.
Kathy —
Yes, it was actually an AR-15 and four cops missed it. You genius, you.
What point are you attempting to make?
JE
The racist american police at it every day: abusing, harassing, shooting and killling minorities.
Scary , it’s sad that you can’t be a minority in this world . You’re guilty and need to prove your innocence .
She could have been killed for nothing .
From Palestine to Mexico, walls gotta go.
This detainment had nothing to do with color of skin!
I bet you have a fence around your house, don’t you? Everything is just fine and dandy, as long as you are far away from it.
I nominate the above for Mission Local Foolish Comment of the Year, 2023. Of course there are still a few weeks left, so who knows?
I don’t know Thomas. Michael in the Mission’s comment was dumb, but I’ve definitely seen far more foolish comments than that.