A 74-year-old woman was pushed into a moving BART train at Powell Street station and killed on Monday night, BART Police said.
Officers arrested Trevor Belmont, 49, also known as Hoak Taing, on the platform of Powell Street Station shortly after the incident. Police described Belmont as a “transient,” another word for homeless. The incident marks the first homicide on BART this year.
The incident occurred around 11:06 p.m. Monday as a Millbrae-bound train approached the station. The victim struck her head on the train and fell onto the platform. She was transported to San Francisco General Hospital by the fire department, where she later died, police said.
The victim was identified as Corazon Dandan, a San Mateo County resident, by the medical examiner’s office. Public records list a Daly City address for Dandan.
Her nephew Alvin Dandan, a doctor in St. Louis, told The Standard that she was returning home from work as a telephone operator at the Parc 55 hotel when she was attacked on the train platform.
He credited his aunt—who is called Tita Cora by her nieces and nephews—with helping pay for his medical school and the education of several relatives.
“Great does not even define what I think this woman is,” he said by phone on Tuesday. “I wouldn’t be here and a lot of my cousins wouldn’t be here. … She put a lot of people through school.”
Dandan immigrated to San Francisco from the Philippines in the 1980s “as a single, independent woman” and rode BART every day to her job at the hotel, her nephew said. She had also worked at the Westin St. Francis near Union Square for decades before retiring from that hotel, he said.
He exchanged text messages with his aunt earlier in the day. “She sounded chipper,” he said.
She continued working well past retirement age even though she did not need the income, he said. She was divorced and did not have children.
“She just loved working and being around younger people,” Alvin Dandan said.
His cousins recently warned her about riding BART late at night, fearing that the transit system was unsafe.
In a statement provided to The Standard, Peter Hart, general manager at Parc 55, said the hotel’s staff was “deeply saddened by the tragic passing of a longtime hotel Team Member and a dear colleague.”
“She made a lasting impact on so many of our guests and Team Members and will be greatly missed by everyone who knew her,” Hart said. “We extend our sincerest condolences to her family and loved ones at this incredibly difficult time.”
Dandan “was pushed into a train and is now laid out on the platform,” a woman on BART Police scanner audio from Monday night posted to YouTube can be heard to say. “We have medical on the way.”
“We’re going to need more units for this,” a male voice in the recording said.
BART police said they are actively investigating, interviewing witnesses and reviewing surveillance footage. Investigators are still working to determine a motive for the incident.
Belmont was booked in county jail at 8 a.m. Tuesday morning, where he remains. He was arrested on suspicion of murder and inflicting injury on an elder, likely to cause great bodily injury. He also did not have a ticket to ride, BART’s police log said.
Public records show that Belmont, under the name Taing, lived on 31st Avenue in San Francisco from 1998 to 2000.
The station sits on the border between San Francisco supervisors Matt Dorsey and Dean Preston’s districts. Dorsey said he and Preston were speaking about the incident and continuing to get updates from police.
“It’s a terrible tragedy,” Dorsey said.