Friend of BART shooting victim explains what happened
OAKLAND - A BART rider is in the hospital after a man shot him on a train while it stopped at the Oakland Fruitvale Station on Friday afternoon.
"It didn't appear to be a random act, it appeared to be a targeted act. And I tell you that because our platform video shows the man getting on to the car and getting right back off," said BART Police Chief Ed Alvarez.
BART police say when the train pulled into the next stop at Oakland's Lake Merritt Station a responding officer found the victim bleeding and applied a tourniquet to his arm.
Outside the hospital, family and friends waited as the victim underwent surgery. His mom and cousins said he'd just turned 21.
Friends say they were in a group of five on the train heading to San Francisco, when a stranger dressed in black and a woman got into the car at Fruitvale.
"I don't know who he is. He had a ski mask on too, so that's also why we don't know who he is," said the victim's friend Mya, "He just looked at us, and he was just like, he was like "what's up?"
She says they nodded at him, and then he took out the gun.
"He took out his gun and he was just waving it around at us at first, and we were just pleading with him, saying please and stuff," said the victim's friend.
She says inside the train, her friend was lying face down underneath one of the seats. She says the shooter walked over to him.
"Stood over him and shot him multiple times," she said, describing the shooter, "He didn't say anything at all. He didn't throw gang signs up. Nothing. He just shot him. And then the train doors closed on him, so he was with us for like two seconds. Then he started banging on the train doors, and it opened, and he ran."
"I took my scarf off and took her scarf, and then I wrapped it around his wounds on his back. And then I took my hoodie off, and I wrapped it around his waist cause he had a bullet hole right here too," said Mya.
"We saw someone running into our car and running back away, and we were trying to figure out what was happening. There was a little bit of shouting we couldn't really make of it, we kept looking back people in the car," said Rebecca Fernandez, a BART rider.
BART Police stopped service briefly and took the train to the Richmond yard where investigators searched for evidence.
Police say they're reviewing security camera footage that shows the suspect and plan to release images after they conduct their analysis.
Jana Katsuyama is a reporter for KTVU. Email Jana at jana.katsuyama@fox.com and follow her on Twitter @JanaKTVU or Facebook @NewsJana or ktvu.com.