Astanehe Law Begins Lawsuit for Oakland Man Brutally Stabbed Aboard BART Train

San Francisco, California – On Friday, October 4, 2019, Astanehe Law, a leading Northern California Plaintiff rights’ law firm, filed a lawsuit against the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (“BART”) on behalf of Oakland residents Keith Kingon & Rosey Bridgland for injuries arising from a horrific stabbing perpetrated by one of the thousands of drug-addled transients BART allows on its trains.

On April 6, 2019, a transient man brutally attacked, without provocation, Mr. Kingon with what is believed to have been a boxcutter. BART had allowed the transient to ride its system for hours. The transient, believed to be one of BART’s more than 22,000 daily fare evaders, was never arrested and remains at large.

Following the brutal attack, emergency responders rushed Mr. Kingon to San Francisco General Hospital for emergency care. Although Mr. Kingon survived, he will bear a visible scar on his neck for the rest of his life.

The complaint, filed in Alameda Superior Court, alleges that BART has allowed violent crime to surge on its system by failing to take adequate measures to rectify dangerous conditions, including hiring additional police officers to patrol trains and install adequate barriers at fare gates systemwide.

Despite a 69% increase in violent crime over the past decade and more than 425 reported violent crimes in 2017, BART has failed to take meaningful action to curb violent crime. Mr. Kingon is one of the multiple riders who have suffered a violent attack resulting from BART’s longstanding disregard for rider safety, including a March 2019 Fruitvale station stabbing, a March 2019 murder at the West Oakland station, and the tragic and avoidable death of 18-year-old Nia Wilson in July 2018.

On April 6, 2019, as Mr. Kingon and Ms. Bridgland were departing a Daly City bound train, a transient man, also aboard the train, viciously stabbed Mr. Kingon in the neck. Ms. Bridgland witnessed the vicious attack.

Law enforcement has not arrested the transient attacker, and a BART police department investigation remains open.

Although BART knew about the system-wide unsafe conditions, BART should not have waited until after Mr. Kingon suffered a catastrophic stabbing to institute reform. Since the attack, BART has hired additional police officers and is considering installing more robust fare gates and security fencing to deter fare evasion.

“This suit arises out of BART’S failure to respond to a steady rise in violent crime over the preceding decade,” Plaintiffs’ attorney Michael M. Astanehe said in a statement, “No family should ever experience what Mr. Kingon’s family has endured at the hands of BART’S failure to maintain a safe transit system.”