BART standoff: Footage shows tense confrontation between driver and armed police at Oakland station

Shortly before 5 p.m. Sunday, BART officials in Oakland closed the system’s Coliseum station and Oakland Airport Connector as a tense standoff between police and a motorist unfolded on the street below the station’s tracks. As of 7:02 p.m., the station was open again.

BART spokesperson Anna Duckworth confirmed the police activity and closure, while video captured by several users of Citizen, a hyperlocal safety-alert and video crowd-sourcing app, showed an individual exiting a stopped vehicle, opening and shutting the car’s hood, then getting back in—apparently ignoring the orders of nearby police, some of whom appeared to have weapons drawn.

In a statement Sunday evening, San Leandro police Lt. Enguang Teng said officers responded around 11:30 a.m. to a report of an armed robbery at a business in the 1000 block of MacArthur Boulevard in San Leandro. When officers arrived, they learned an associated vehicle was a silver Hyundai two-door hatchback that had been reported stolen.

Around 2 p.m., other officers found the Hyundai near Washington Avenue and Lewelling Boulevard and tried to stop it in a parking lot near the 14400 block of Washington. But the Hyundai’s driver rammed a responding officer’s patrol vehicle before escaping, leading a pursuit north into Oakland.

Shortly before 2:30 p.m., the vehicle stopped near San Leandro Street and 75th Avenue in Oakland. As its driver barricaded himself inside, officers called an armored vehicle and a drone to the scene before reaching out to a tactical operations team when efforts at negotiation came up short.

In several videos of the incident posted to Citizen, a person can be seen exiting and returning to a Hyundai on San Leandro Street, disregarding repeated commands from police to surrender.

Although Duckworth said the station was closed at the request of Oakland police, an Oakland police spokesperson said San Leandro police were handling the incident.

There were no reported injuries and no initial announcements of mutual-aid service by AC Transit.