EMBED >More News Videos Nia Wilson was just 18 years old when she was killed in an unprovoked stabbing at MacArthur BART station in Oakland. Fighting through sorrow, her friends, family, and the community at large are mourning the teenager who brightened the lives of those she knew, and has inspired many who never got the chance. EMBED >More News Videos John Cowell is accused of killing 18-year-old Nia Wilson and injuring her sister Letifah Wilson at MacArthur BART. He was arrested Monday afternoon at a different BART station in Pleasant Hill. EMBED >More News Videos Here's everything we know about the attack that claimed the life of 18-year-old Nia Wilson. BART stabbing suspect has lengthy criminal record. The older he got, the bolder were his crimes. pic.twitter.com/5mSNX3STVO — Vic Lee (@vicleeabc7) July 25, 2018 CONTINUING COVERAGE ON DEADLY BART STABBING: OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- The suspect in the BART stabbing, John Lee Cowell, has a criminal record with mostly petty theft and other misdemeanors -- probably nothing that would give police a reason to suspect he would commit murder. But as he grew older, his offenses became bolder.At just 27 years old, he already has a long rap sheet. When he was 18, Cowell's adult criminal record included misdemeanor drug offenses, obstruction of a peace officer and assault. On the assault charge, Cowell was convicted and released on probation.When he was 22, Cowell was convicted of battery. Two years later, in 2015, he had another conviction for using drugs.Then in 2016, there were more misdemeanor charges -- this time at the Target store in Contra Costa County. Cowell was caught shoplifting and carrying drug paraphernalia.Contra Costa County DA spokesperson Scott Alonso says police also found him with this: "I believe he had a tear gas canister. So a wide variety of charges in that one, all misdemeanors. "In May 2016 was Cowell's most serious crime - second degree robbery at Lucky's in El Cerrito. Cowell was known to be a shoplifter here but this time, he was caught in the act. "The loss prevention officer attempted to confront him, detain him and that's when the defendant reacted with a gun, a handgun," Alonso told ABC7 News.It turned out to be a toy gun, but he also had a boxcutter -- a real weapon. Cowell ran from the store and police caught him at the El Cerrito Plaza BART station. "Our prosecutors sought that felony charge. And he was ultimately sentenced to state prison for two years in October of 2016," Alonso said.Cowell completed his sentence and was paroled out in May 2018.He also has a record in Contra Costa's Civil Courts.In 2015, a Concord woman filed a restraining order against him. The following year, there was another restraining order. This one from Kaiser Hospital in Richmond, stating he had repeatedly threatened staff members.You may be wondering -- what about his mental state?Alonso says, " He was evaluated by a doctor in the robbery case in 2016. He was found competent to stand trial. "Cowell also has several misdemeanor offenses in Alameda County -- petty thefts, vandalism and drug use.BART authorities tell ABC7news that Cowell has deep ties to North Concord. He has tattoos on his body, which highlight those ties. One says "North Concord." Another on his neck reads "925," the area code for Concord and incidentally,a tattoo the tipster told police about when he called them. That was the tip that led to his arrest.<doc-sep>The authorities in California said Monday night that they had captured a man who fatally stabbed a young woman and wounded her sister at an Oakland transit station over the weekend, the latest of three unrelated homicides at Bay Area transit stations in less than a week. The Bay Area Rapid Transit Police Department identified the stabbing suspect as John Lee Cowell, 27, a parolee who was released from prison about four months ago. Around 6:30 p.m. local time, the police took him into custody at the Pleasant Hill BART station, about 15 miles northeast of where the stabbing took place, said Chief Carlos Rojas of the BART Police Department. He said riders had identified Mr. Cowell, whose picture had been widely distributed. The suspect was unarmed when he was arrested. Mr. Cowell was being held without bail on Tuesday morning in a jail in Alameda County, Calif., on charges of first-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon and theft, according to court records. His first court appearance was scheduled for Wednesday morning.<doc-sep>OAKLAND, Calif. -- The hunt for a man police say killed an 18-year-old woman in an unprovoked knife attack in the San Francisco Bay Area ended where it began: in a train station. John Cowell, 27, a recently paroled robber with a reported history of drug use, homelessness and violence, was peacefully arrested on an Antioch-bound train Monday night about a dozen miles from the Oakland station where investigators believe he killed Nia Wilson and wounded her sister Sunday night. Authorities said they weren't ruling out race as a factor in the stabbings. The arrest "is the first step to achieving justice for Nia and her family," Bay Area Rapid Transit Police Chief Carlos Rojas said at a news conference. A phone call from a BART rider led police to stop and search a Richmond-bound train at the MacArthur Station in Oakland but Cowell wasn't aboard, Rojas said. "About 10 minutes later after we got the call, another patron told us the subject got on an Antioch-bound train," he said. That train was stopped at the Pleasant Hill station in Walnut Park, northeast of Oakland. Cowell was on board and was arrested without incident. He wasn't carrying a weapon, authorities said. It wasn't immediately known if Cowell had a lawyer. John Lee Cowell BART Police Dept. Asked how a wanted man could have gotten back into the BART system, Rojas said he didn't immediately know but said the public transportation system is "porous" and large. Rojas said police officers were on duty at the MacArthur station where the attack took place but wasn't sure it could have been prevented because of the suddenness of the unprovoked and possibly random attack. In a "prison-style attack," Cowell stabbed Nia Wilson twice in the neck and then attacked her sister before fleeing and apparently doffing his pants and sweatshirt to evade capture, Rojas said. The knife believed to have been used in the attack was found at a nearby construction site. Letifah Wilson, 26, said that she, Nia and a third sister had been returning from a family outing when they were "blindsided by a maniac." "He didn't know us, we didn't know him," Wilson said. CBS San Francisco reports the sisters were helping a woman struggling with a stroller exit a train when they were attacked. The women's father, Ansar Muhammad, said one of his daughters called him, crying hysterically, and told him to get to the MacArthur station. "It's nothing imaginable, seeing your child on the BART platform with a yellow tarp over her body," Muhammad said Monday evening. "That is an image I'll never forget for the rest of my life. So I want justice. All I want is justice." Surveillance video on the train and at the station's platform showed Cowell had been riding the same car as the sisters Sunday, but they didn't interact, Rojas said. A motive for the attack remained unclear. While there has been rampant speculation on social media that the crime may have been racially motivated, Rojas wasn't able to confirm that as of Monday evening, CBS San Francisco says. This undated Facebook photo shows Nia Wilson. Facebook He said Cowell hasn't been connected to any radical or white supremacist groups, although he added: "We are going to explore all options and all possibilities." The victims were black and Cowell is white. Monday night, Oakland City Councilmember Lynette McElhaney said she had spoken to the district attorney and was told that Cowell will be arraigned Wednesday and the office hasn't ruled out charging him with a hate crime. Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf issued a statement acknowledging that there currently was no evidence that the attack was racially motivated but "the fact that his victims were both young African American women stirs deep pain and palpable fear in all of us who acknowledge the reality that our country still suffers from a tragic and deeply racist history." Protesters packed the MacArthur BART station early Monday evening to demand justice for Nia and her older sister, reports CBS San Francisco. Dozens raised their signs and voices for a vigil at the growing memorial. Nia's mother was there, and was consoled by family, friends and a community of support. At one point, the rally and vigil moved from the station to downtown Oakland. Police said about a thousand people were part of that march, a planned "pro-Oakland" demonstration organized to counter a white supremacist group that had announced plans to gather at a neighborhood bar. Although police said there was no evidence yet the attack was racially-motivated, some demonstrators said they believed otherwise. The march continued into the night with demonstrators hanging up a large banner that read "Bay Area Stands Against Hate." Police said two people were detained when a small scuffle broke out. They have since been released. Nia Wilson's death was the third involving an attack in the BART system in five days, making it one of the deadliest weeks in the system's history. On Sunday, a homeless man died after he was punched by an attacker Saturday at a station in San Leandro, fell and struck his head on pavement. Another man who was attacked last week died Friday after a small cut he suffered became infected, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. An arrest was made in that case and authorities said neither case was connected to the stabbings. Crime on BART trains and in the system's stations has been a hot button issue for nearly a year, CBS San Francisco notes. BART Police says it has ramped up patrols and working video cameras have been placed throughout stations and on the cars.<doc-sep>
The suspect in the fatal stabbing of a woman and the wounding of her sister at the MacArthur Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) station on Sunday was arrested on a train to Antioch after being on the run for 21 hours. BART Police Chief Carlos Rojas told a news conference that an anonymous tip from a rider on a BART train led to the arrest of John Lee Cowell, 27, the Associated Press reported. Police intercepted the train at Pleasant Hill BART station and arrested the paroled felon, ABC 7 reported. Cowell had no weapon, and did not resist arrest, Rojas said. Police launched a manhunt on Sunday after 18-year-old Nia Wilson was stabbed to death and her sister, Latifa Wilson, 25, was wounded on a platform at MacArthur BART station. Nia Wilson died from her injuries at the scene, while Latifa Wilson remained in a critical condition in hospital Monday. Rojas said that surveillance camera footage showed that Cowell had been riding on the same train as the sisters, but they did not interact. As they got onto the platform, Cowell launched the attack, Rojas said. "It looks like it was an unprovoked, unwarranted, vicious attack," Rojas said, adding police did not have a motive for what he described as a "prison style" attack, in which Nia Wilson was stabbed in the neck twice. The sisters are black, and Cowell is white. Rojas said that police had not found any connections between Cowell and white supremacist groups. The East Bay Times reported that Cowell has an extensive criminal record. In 2016, Kaiser Medical in Richmond filed a restraining order against him after he was accused of threatening to kill an employee. He spent two years in prison after being sentenced for armed robbery and was released on parole four months ago. Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, in a statement released after Cowell was caught, expressed condolences to the Wilson family and welcomed news of the arrest. "I am relieved to learn that the suspect was apprehended after an anonymous tip from a BART rider led to the arrest of the suspect. May this serve as the first step in bringing justice for the Wilson family, and healing to our community," she said. "As the Mayor of Oakland, it's important I acknowledge that this horrific crime has a context. Although investigators currently have no evidence to conclude that this tragedy was racially motivated or that the suspect was affiliated with any hate groups, the fact that his victims were both young African American women stirs deep pain and palpable fear in all of us who acknowledge the reality that our country still suffers from a tragic and deeply racist history."