BART officer accidentally kills colleague

DUBLIN, Calif. — A Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer accidentally shot and killed a fellow officer Tuesday in the first on-duty fatality in the department’s 42-year history, authorities said.

The officers were conducting a search at a home in the East Bay city of Dublin when the shooting occurred Tuesday afternoon. BART Police Chief Kenton Rainey said the officers were following up on a crime that was committed on BART property.

“It is with a heavy heart that I have to announce the tragic loss of the first officer killed in the line of duty in the history of the BART Police Department,” Rainey told reporters at a brief news conference Tuesday evening.

He offered few other details and didn’t answer any questions from reporters.

“We ask that everyone please give us a chance to catch our breath,” he said, and also to “grieve.”

The officer who was shot was taken to Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, where he died from his injuries.

“The entire BART organization is deeply saddened by this tragic event, and we ask the public to keep the officer’s family in its thoughts and prayers,” Rainey and BART General Manager Grace Crunican said earlier in a joint statement.

They said they were withholding the officers’ identity and other details for now.

Both Rainey and Crunican have visited with the deceased officer’s family to provide condolences and offer support.

The Alameda County Sheriff’s Department will investigate the shooting, Rainey said.

BART has had its share of troubles in the past.

Notable among them was the New Year’s Day 2009 fatal shooting of Oscar Grant III, an unarmed black BART passenger who had been detained at the Fruitvale station after reports of a fight.

Officer Johannes Mehserle, who is white, drew his gun and shot Grant in the back as he lay face down on the platform. The event was recorded by many video and cellphone cameras and was followed by a series of large protests.

Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to two years minus time served.

An independent auditor said last month that BART police have made significant progress in meeting reforms instituted after the Grant shooting, including increased officer training regarding bias and other issues along with better reporting about incidents involving use of force.

Chief Rainey said that officers now receive 40 hours of such training every year, compared with the state standard of 24 hours every two years.

The BART Police Department began operation in 1972, but the department traces its beginnings to several years before that.

In 1969, the transit district’s board of directors decided that local police and sheriff’s departments should patrol the new BART stations and other properties. Police chiefs and sheriffs worried that the proposal would cause disputes and inconsistent levels of police protection, so instead, legislation was passed to create a separate BART Police Department.