Man shot multiple times on BART train, police say

OAKLAND, Calif. - A man was wounded in a shooting onboard a BART train in Oakland Friday afternoon, police said.

BART police said the victim was taken to Highland Hospital with multiple gunshot wounds.

His injuries were life-threatening, but his condition has improved, and he is listed as stable. He was shot at least twice, once in his arm and his leg.

The shooting occurred around 1:25 p.m. onboard a San Francisco/Daly City-bound train that was at the Fruitvale Station.

BART Chief Ed Alvarez said a man opened fire on the train with a handgun, wounding another man.

The suspect exited the train and ran out of the Fruitvale Station. He has not been caught.

The victim continued on the train to the Lake Merritt Station where BART police rendered first aid.

It's unclear what led up to the shooting, but Alvarez said it appears to be a targeted attack.

"We're pretty confident this was not a random attack. It appears to be a targeted attack," he said. Adding, "The reason I tell you that is because our platform video shows the individual getting onto the train car, and get right back off."

Alvarez said the train left the Fruitvale Station after the shooting because the BART operator and police weren't alerted to what had occurred until after the train departed.

"We didn't know a shooting had occurred. We didn't even start getting calls until the train had already left the Fruitvale Station. And then we started getting multiple 911 calls into our dispatch center as well as our intercom to our train operator," the police chief said.

Witnesses who were onboard the train described the scene moments after the shots were fired.

"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, but we couldn't really make of it. We kept looking back trying to figure out what had happened," said Rebecca Hernandez.