There was a stabbing overnight on a BART train in Oakland that appears to have been unprovoked, and the incident is sure to add to public perception that the trains are unsafe.

The stabbing occurred onboard a train just before 12:20 a.m. Friday, as the train was entering 19th Street Station in Oakland. BART police officers immediately made an arrest of an individual, identified by KRON4 as 44-year-old Tamire Edwards of Oakland. (KTVU says that Edwards is 54.)

According to BART police, the stabbing was unprovoked, but the incident remains under investigation. The victim suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

Edwards was booked into Santa Rita Jail on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and probation violation, and BART spokesperson Jim Allison said he also was not in possession of BART fare or proof of payment.

BART has undertaken multiple initiatives in the last two years to improve public safety, and the perception of it, on trains, while ridership remains well below pre-pandemic levels on most days.

As KPIX reported last month, the BART Police Department has 28 vacant positions for which it is trying to recruit officers, and the BART board recently voted to increase salaries for those roles.

Additionally, BART says it has 4,000 working surveillance cameras throughout the train system, and the agency says they "are working very hard to increase both sworn officers and ambassador presence."

Photo: Jonathan Herman/Unsplash