BART Officer Accidentally Shot and Killed by Fellow Officer

By Patch Staff and Bay City News Service

A spokesman for the Alameda County Sheriff's Office said that a BART officer was accidentally shot and killed by a fellow BART officer during a probation search at an apartment building in Dublin Tuesday. 

The shooting happened at 1:03 p.m., according to BART police. The officer was taken to Eden Medical Center, where he succumbed to his injuries, according to Sergeant JD Nelson of the Alameda County Sheriff's Office. 

The suspect, who is not being identified, was wanted by BART police for several crimes, including robbery, committed on the BART train, and was not home at the time of the incident, according to Nelson.

Dublin police are still investigating and questioning all officers who were at the scene. According to Nelson, an officer from Dublin Police Services was stationed outside the apartment during the search, in addition to several BART officers.

Bay City News Service quoted Nelson saying the shooting occurred at the Park Sierra Apartments at 6450 Dougherty Road, where several officers went search an apartment belonging to a suspect in a series of recent robberies on BART.

Nelson said the two officers entered the apparently empty apartment and one officer accidentally fired a shot that wounded the other officer, according to Bay City News.

Nelson said he assumes that the officers had their guns drawn as they entered the apartment but that the details of how or why the officer's gun went off remain unclear, the news agency reported.

"Today's tragedy was the first death of an officer in the line of duty in the history of the BART Police Department," said BART Police Chief Kenton Rainey in a statement late Tuesday.

"While performing a probation search, one BART police officer accidentally shot another officer who later died from the injury. The officers were following up on a crime committed on BART property. The Dublin Police Department (which contracts with the Alameda County Sheriff's Department) has taken over the investigation and no further details are available at this time."

BART issued the following statement shortly before 4 p.m.

"BART has been informed that one of our officers has died from wounds sustained during a shooting earlier today. The entire BART organization is deeply saddened by this tragic event and we ask the public to keep the officer’s family in its thoughts and prayers."