(Two black teens were stabbed on a Oakland Bart platform on Sunday, July 22, 2018. (Photo credit: Sammie7993, Wikimedia Commons) )
“Please help me get justice for my daughter,” Ansar Mohammed pleaded on KTVU. “I watch this on TV but I never imagined this happening to me.”
A passenger on BART, the public transportation system in the San Francisco Bay Area, fatally stabbed Mohammed’s 18-year-old daughter Nia Wilson in the neck at around 9:45 p.m. on Sunday and wounded her older sister as they exited a train at a stop near downtown Oakland, according to SFGate.
Nia Wilson was pronounced dead at the scene, and her sister was taken to a nearby hospital.
Nia Wilson was murdered last night at MacArthur @SFBART station in Oakland, CA by a white male still st large. Where is the security footage? Where are his photos & why aren’t they being plastered everywhere? What is BART going to do? #sayhername #niawilson #justiceforniawilson pic.twitter.com/gk1UXQX8Gv
— vegan ice water (@veganwaterpls) July 23, 2018
The attack appeared to be random, according to witnesses. The suspect fled and remains at large was arrested Monday night.
The suspect is 27-year-old John Lee Cowell, a white man who was recently released from prison.
According to BART officials, both the victims and the suspect boarded a train in Concord, a Bay Area suburb. Cowell reportedly followed the sisters off the train and attacked them on the platform.
Malika Harris identified the victim who died as her 18-year-old sister. Harris created a GoFundMe campaign Monday and raised over $3,500 in the first five hours.
Several relatives gathered at the station Sunday evening to mourn Wilson.
“She needs her justice … she was just an innocent kid, and she didn’t deserve this,” Ebony Monroe, a cousin of the victims, told SFGate. “And he did this for no reason.”
Monroe described Nia Wilson as a “beautiful, sweet person” who loved fashion and makeup.
Activist Shaun King, Singer Kehlani, and more have joined in the effort to find the suspect. Some called out BART for not finding and releasing photos of the suspect sooner.
https://twitter.com/ShaunKing/status/1021408885205237760
https://twitter.com/Kehlani/status/1021409085499924480
https://twitter.com/Kehlani/status/1021409846451527680
Ok @SFBART, since as of 2017 all the BART cameras are meant to be real, why haven't we seen a picture of the man who murdered Nia Wilson? "Heavyset white man in his 20-30's" describes half of Silicon Valley.https://t.co/2jaAOBG2zO#NiaWilson #SayHerName
— Erica Astrella (@EricaJoy) July 23, 2018
https://twitter.com/sassybrow/status/1021441983087198208
Teens in a cave far away dominated the news. Where are the stories about #niawilson, black teen stabbed by a white man in Oakland, CA?
— Dennis Fischman @dennisfischman@babka.social (@DennisFischman) July 23, 2018