BART Police Chief: Kenton Rainey:
We demand that BART publicly release the body camera footage from the West Oakland BART shooting immediately.
Phone: 510.464.7022,
E-mail: krainey@bart.gov
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bartsf?fref=ts
Twitter: @SFBART
Last week, a man was shot and critically injured at the West Oakland BART Station after a struggle with two BART police officers. BART police allege that the man shot himself in the stomach with his own gun after resisting arrest on the platform.
However, one witness who took a video of the incident says that he heard a “pop” from across the platform. He then saw a black man on the ground and a policeman on top of him and the man on the ground was yelling, “They shot me! They shot me!”
The two officers involved in the incident were wearing body cameras, and an official statement from BART claims that the footage is being reviewed. BART’s statement also declared their intention to charge the man with attempted murder.
But past incidents involving BART police, like the murder of Oscar Grant in 2009, demonstrate that we cannot trust BART police’s account of the events, or to review the footage without oversight from the public.
For the next #72hours, we are urging the public to call, e-mail, Facebook and Tweet BART, and demand that they #releasethetapes. If their version of events is accurate and true, they should have no problem sharing the body camera and BART station surveillance footage with the public.
While body cameras cannot provide a comprehensive recounting of the incident, they can shed some light and increase transparency. BART needs to know that we are watching, and that we are seeking accountability. We demand that BART publically release the body camera footage from the West Oakland BART shooting immediately.
BART Police Chief: Kenton Rainey
Phone: 510.464.7022,
E-mail: krainey@bart.gov
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bartsf?fref=ts
Twitter: @SFBART
Please use the hashtags #72hours and #releasethetapes.
Supporters:
Anti-Police Terror Project
Black Power Network
Coalition for Police Accountability
Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
National Lawyers Guild