BART CCTV Video of BART Police Killing Charles Hill at Civic Center Station

BART police chief Kenton Rainey said in a press conference this afternoon that BART is in possession of no other video from the platform that evening -- of BART police, Charles Hill, or anywhere else on the platform -- even though BART has cameras throughout every station. He gave no indication of why that might be. The video provided to the press is obscured to conceal the identity of the BART police, but BART says they intend to release both officers' names as well as a non-obscured version of the video at some point in the future. Both officers were returned to duty after three days of paid leave and a psychological examination.

At the press conference, Rainey would give no indication of the distance between the shooting officer and Charles Hill, nor any information about events not seen in the video, other than to characterize what Charles Hill was allegedly doing when he was shot. Rainey said Charles Hill raised a knife above his head when the officer fired his service weapon. Rainey would not, however, comment on whether Charles Hill was lunging toward officers or moving slowly towards them, as at least one witness reported. Rainey would also not answer questions about commuters out of the view of the camera who may have been in or near the line of fire. There are numerous passengers on the platform seen in the video released today.

Deflating the police "injury" story that BART heavily circulated previously, presumably to heighten the sense of danger the officers faced in the Civic Center station, it is now known through a trusted source that the injury was sustained as a result of a bottle Charles Hill had been holding that broke on the platform (BART police say Hill threw the bottle in the direction of police without having hit them). The injured officer at some unknown point slipped in the spilled liquid on the platform and fell, apparently receiving a minor cut from the broken glass.


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