Over 50 teenagers swarmed a BART subway car in Oakland, California over the weekend, robbing and beating passengers in what officials are calling an “orchestrated heist.”
According to Alicia Trost, a spokeswoman for the Bay Area Rapid Transit, about 40 to 60 teenagers jumped the fare gates at the Coliseum Station in California around 9:30 P.M. on Saturday. Afterwards, they ran onto the second-story platform, where they entered an arriving train car.
Trost said the teens grabbed bags and cell phones from seven passengers and escaped to an East Oakland neighborhood before officers could respond.
Keith Garcia, a BART police officer and union president, said that in his 24 years on the job, he’s never heard of anything like it.
Via SF Gate:
The attack was so quick, police reported, that the teenagers were able to retreat from the station and vanish into the surrounding East Oakland neighborhood before BART officers could respond. The train was held for about 15 minutes as authorities interviewed victims and witnesses and tended to the injured.
Trost said police arrived at the station in less than 5 minutes, but that the robberies took place in just seconds.
Although BART police had increased the number of officers patrolling Oakland stations Saturday night because of a recent rise in the number of police calls, Trost said no officers were at the Coliseum Station when it was stormed.
Director Robert Raburn said he was “very disturbed that such an aggressive action would put BART passengers and employees at risk. It cannot occur with impunity.”
