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Thread: 27-year-old transient John Lee Cowell Detained for Murder

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    27-year-old transient John Lee Cowell Detained for Murder

    https://www.sfgate.com/crime/article...m-85307-tbla-5

    A BART passenger?s tip ended a daylong police manhunt for the violent felon suspected of fatally stabbing a BART passenger and injuring her sister in a sudden unprovoked attack at the MacArthur Station platform in Oakland.

    Nia Wilson, 18, died on the platform Sunday night as she and her two sisters waited to change trains when a man identified as 27-year-old transient John Lee Cowell approached and quickly stabbed her and Lahtifa Wilson, 26, on their necks, police said. The older sister was hospitalized overnight.

    ?In my close-to-30 years of police experience, it was probably one of the most vicious attacks that I?ve seen,? BART Police Chief Carlos Rojas said at a news conference Monday.

    Police said they took Cowell into custody at Pleasant Hill BART Station after receiving a tip from a passenger. He was arrested on an Antioch-bound train.

    Lahtifa Wilson described the night in an interview with ABC-7 News.

    She and her sisters were on their way home from a family function, listening to music on a train and keeping to themselves. They stepped off their train at MacArthur and were just about to transfer to another train. One sister got on board and the other two waited as a woman with a child in a stroller exited the train. That?s when they were ?blindsided by a maniac.?

    ?For what? I don?t know why,? she said, standing with a bandage on the right side of her neck. ?And I looked back, and he was wiping off his knife and stood at the stairs and just looked ? and from there on, I was just caring for my sister. I was in shock... I didn?t know I was cut because I was paying more attention to my sister. But he just stood there, like it was nothing.?

    She said her sister yelled out for her: ?She just yelled my name: ?Tifa, Tifa, Tifa,? and I said, ?I got you, baby, I got you.??

    ?He didn?t know us, we didn?t know him,? Wilson said.

    Hundreds of people gathered for a vigil Monday evening at MacArthur BART Station, bringing flowers, candles and incense. Some held signs demanding justice for the two sisters.

    Solena Sampson squeezed her 16-year-old daughter as she paid her respects. Sampson said she didn?t know Wilson or her family, but as a mother knew the fear of having a child that didn?t come home.

    ?It could have been anybody?s daughter,? she said.

    By early evening, the event evolved into a protest of sorts, with attendees decrying the violence against the Wilson sisters and other youth in Oakland.

    Daryle Allums, Wilson?s godfather and leader of Oakland?s Stop Killing Our Kids group said Wilson?s death had shaken up the whole town.

    At the news conference, Allums addressed concerns that the attack might be racially motivated. Cowell is white and the Wilson sisters are black. He urged the African American community to ?stand down right now? and avoid jumping to conclusions.

    ?We don?t know if this was racist,? Allums said. ?Let?s get this information to find out what really happened. Let?s find out the right facts to then be able to deal with this situation.?

    In May 2016, Cowell was convicted of felony second-degree robbery, according to court records. That same year, a Kaiser hospital in Richmond obtained a restraining order against him after he allegedly repeatedly harassed and threatened staff members with physical harm.

    Cowell was homeless and would often show up in the emergency department and make ?rather specific? threats, said Jason Curliano, an attorney who represents the hospital.

    A separate restraining order was filed against Cowell in 2015, but the circumstances were not immediately available.

    Cowell was previously convicted of battery in June 2013, and of being under the influence of a controlled substance in March 2016. Both those incidents happened in Walnut Creek.

    He also had several misdemeanor infractions of vandalism, petty theft and possession of a controlled substance on his record, according to Alameda County court records.

    Rojas said that while there was no evidence to suggest Sunday?s attack was racially motivated, police aren?t ruling out the possibility. The slaying of Nia Wilson was the third possible homicide connected to BART in just five days.

    Nicole Mikels, who was on the train at the MacArthur Station that the sisters had just exited said she heard ?horrifying screams.?

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