A death near Muni's Church Street Station made headlines in January for the crowds of commuters left stranded in its wake — but new details reported Monday suggest that the tale was far more grisly than first reported.
It was around 3:30 January 11 when, as previously reported, the SFMTA halted Muni Metro service traveling both ways between the Van Ness and West Portal Stations, causing delays until around 9:30 p.m.
UPDATE: #subwaysvc delayed btwn WP and Church due to a medical emergency at Church Station. Shuttles to support from Church to WP.
— SFMTA (@sfmta_muni) January 11, 2017
The cause, the MTA said at the time, was a body discovered in the tunnel between the Castro Street and Church Street Stations. According to SFMTA spokesperson Paul Rose, who spoke with CBS 5 at the time of the incident, a train operator reported a person in Muni's inbound tunnel around 3:05 p.m. Responding officers with the San Francisco Police Department "found a deceased person just east of the Castro Street station."
That person was later identified as 57-year-old SF resident Joaquin Barnes, according to the San Francisco Medical Examiner's Office.
Preliminary reports stated that Barnes was killed in a collision with a Muni train, with Rose saying that Muni was pulling surveillance video of the incident. However, Hoodline reported Monday that the death might have occurred earlier, and was the result of an effort to steal transfers. From Hoodline's report:
While the SFPD report hasn't provided in-depth details, a witness said he saw the victim exit a Muni train into Castro station, then reach the top half of his body through the window of the Muni car in an attempt to take transfer tickets. The train began moving, and the victim's lower body crashed into a metal security gate. The witness stated that the victim held on for seconds longer before rolling out of the window.While the SFPD confirmed that officers responded to the scene at 3:05pm, the witness claimed to have reported this incident to authorities at 11:25am. There is no current explanation of the reported discrepancy between the incident and response.
Accordinfg to Twitter user @sfgiantcdxv, who described the situation in a series of messages to the SFMTA, "There was a train directly behind the one we were on," the one, it appears to be suggested, that struck Barnes.
@sfmta_muni happened as it happened from beginning to end. I was the person who reported it to the driver that called it in this a.m., the
— Damaged Youth (@sfgiantcdxv) January 12, 2017
@sfmta_muni the man was on an inbound train, last door second car & got off at Castro station. The man got stuck in the window of the 2nd
— Damaged Youth (@sfgiantcdxv) January 12, 2017
@sfmta_muni car driver compartment, head to waist was inside and waist to feet were in the air out the window trying to snatch transfers
— Damaged Youth (@sfgiantcdxv) January 12, 2017
@sfmta_muni that were left in the unoccupied driver compartment. He was unable to neither pull himself in nor out the window when the train
— Damaged Youth (@sfgiantcdxv) January 12, 2017
@sfmta_muni began to pull out of Castro station. As we passed the orange metal gate preventing pedestrians from walking into the tunnel
— Damaged Youth (@sfgiantcdxv) January 12, 2017
@sfmta_muni the lower half of his body crashed into that metal gate. He held on maybe two seconds longer before he rolled out of the window
— Damaged Youth (@sfgiantcdxv) January 12, 2017
@sfmta_muni completely. There was a train directly behind the one we were on. He looked directly into my eyes before he got off. I am hurtin
— Damaged Youth (@sfgiantcdxv) January 12, 2017
A call from SFist to SFPD for comment on this accounting of events has not been returned as of publication time.
Previously: Fatality At Church Street Station Causes Major Muni Snarl At Rush Hour