Many of us woke up Monday morning to another tragic story that occurred Sunday night in Oakland, California. Three sisters were senselessly attacked by a maniac at the Oakland MacArthur BART train station Sunday night upon their return from a family outing. A man came out of nowhere and slashed 18-year old Nia Wilson across the neck before stabbing her older sister, Latifa Wilson, before quickly fleeing the scene. Nia's wound proved to be fatal and she sadly died at the scene, while her sister recovered at a local hospital.
While the suspect had been on the run for the most of the day, it’s now reported that the Oakland officials had captured and arrested him Monday night. According to a BART source, authorities received an anonymous citizen call saying the suspect was on an Antioch-bound train in the East Bay. Police stopped the train at Pleasant Hill station, where officers boarded and arrested Cowell without incident.
The suspect, identified earlier Monday as 27-year-old John Lee Cowell, is a transient with a history of violence. He’s been in & out of jail, had a restraining order against him after he threatened to kill an employee in 2016, and just got off parole 4 months ago.
The senseless murder was initially thought to be an act of racism & hate crime as the three sisters were African American and the 27-year old male was white. However police haven't been able to tie that together. "We haven't connected him to any type of radical group or white supremacist group or anything like that," BART Police Chief Carlos Rojas said.
BART posted about the arrest on their official Twitter account a few hours ago:
https://twitter.com/_/status/1021572123993636864
