We now have bodycam video of the November 18 BART Police shooting of a woman at the Union City BART station parking lot, after BART Police responded to reports she was doing donuts in the parking lot.
Back in mid-November, we learned that BART Police had shot a 32-year-old woman in the parking lot of the Union City BART station. BART’s original statement identified the woman as Jasmine Gao of Union City, and accused her of “reckless driving in the parking lot of Union City Station,” and claimed she “assaulted a police officer which led to one of the officers discharging their firearm.”
That version of events, or at least the “assault” part of it, is now put to the test, as the Chronicle reports BART Police have released the bodycam video of the incident. That bodycam video is seen below, but be warned, it is very graphic video of someone being shot and then basically bleeding all over the place.
The video is 48 minutes long, and shows the same incident twice, from the perspective of two officers’ bodycam cameras. One officer hits the sirens of his car at the 1:57 mark while approaching Gao’s vehicle, and he engages at the 2:13 point telling her to roll down her windows. “Sorry, there’s no one here,” she responds, to which one of the officers says “Someone said that a car matching this description was doing donuts in this parking lot.”
Gao responds, “What? Eating donuts?” and adds, “I don’t know how to do donuts.” She engages in plenty of distractive banter while playing innocent, and puts on a real masterclass of topic-changing obfuscation. But she cannot play off the fact that her vehicle has an expired registration, and she cannot produce a valid driver’s license.
Still, that is not assault.
One BART Police officer tries to grab her keys at the 7:55 mark, and Gao still refuses to leave the vehicle. The officer reaches in and attempts to open the car door from outside, saying, “Ma'am, I’m going to pepper-spray you.” Gao rolls up the window, drives away, and one of the two officers shoots three times, telling his dispatcher, “Shots fired!”
Gao is bleeding heavily when they pull her from her vehicle and cuff her, while she asks, “Why did you do that to me?” And for someone who just got shot, Gao puts up one hell of a fight. Other passersby in the parking lot seem to be on her side, though one appears to be calling her a “fucking dog-eater.”
The officer who fired the shots is reportedly Nicholas Poblete, a six-year BART Police Department employee, who is currently on paid administrative leave.
“I want to assure the public that all aspects of this incident will be thoroughly investigated,” BART Police Chief Kevin Franklin said in a statement, adding that BART had released the full bodycam from both officers “to provide full transparency and accountability.”
The morning after the incident, BART said that Gao “will be charged with assault with a deadly weapon on police, reckless evading, failure to follow a court order, and resisting arrest with an enhancement of committing a felony while out on her own recognizance. She also had two outstanding arrest warrants.”
But it will be up to the next Alameda County DA if Gao will indeed face those charges.
Related: BART Police Shoot Female Suspect In Officer-Involved Shooting In Union City [SFist]
Image: BARTnewsfeed via YouTube
