A 52-year-old man is in custody on a psychiatric hold after going onto BART tracks from the Concord BART station and then threatening to kill himself by jumping off of the raised trackway Wednesday evening, shutting down BART service for several hours, according to the transit agency.
The Concord resident entered the trackway shortly after 5 p.m. and refused to leave, prompted the shutdown of train service between the Concord and Pleasant Hill/Contra Costa Centre stations.
Negotiations with the man ensued for several hours, with passengers having to take bus shuttles or find other means to get around the affected area of the trackway, according to BART.
At about 2:35 a.m. Thursday, authorities moved in and physically removed the man from the trackway. He has since been placed on a psychiatric hold and criminal charges are pending, BART officials said.
Train service between the two stations resumed as normal at the start of BART’s service schedule early Thursday morning.
BART apologized for the delays for thousands of riders’ evening commutes.
“It is very difficult to replace BART’s capacity and we are thankful for our regional transit partners,” BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost said.
The guy is lucky I am not in charge.
I wish you were in charge. One bus for 9 car train of people getting off at PH BART last night. Ridiculous this went on for so long. BART fares up 5.4% for this awful service. BART stinks in every way possible.
I sympathize with you. I would have been burning.
Ridiculous that you feel so little compassion for this gentleman. I hope neither you nor any family members ever have a mental health breakdown.
I’m with @Neighbor on this 100%
Why would you negotiate with someone holding up a regional transit system for hours? Shut down the electricity, taze him and let’s move on.
Because we are a kinder, gentler Nation?????????????
They can stand around on their cellphones all day like they do. BART service workers with their clean white expensive service trucks do the same.
@S I agree.
The Mamba forgets that BART PD is paralyzed with fright over hurting anyone. The goofy Board of Directors , half of whom are criminal lovers ,refuse to support the cops.
They should let bart be free for two days for this some people didnt get home until 3 am becuase of this and the fact that they let it happen for hours. The situation was managed very piirly.
Yesterday evening BART was handing out $10 fare cards to everyone arriving in the station as an apology for the inconvenience of the event. So maybe not “free for two days” but something approximating that.
And being how horrible county psych help is he was released an hour later and is back on the streets.
No Victor.. minimum is 24 hours…and this sitywas probably more like 52.
I was one of the people stuck in the backed-up mess, and honestly now that I have more context to what was going on, I’m happy to hear the guy’s still alive and being both held to account and taken care of.
Maybe with context people will calm down the “we shoulda just tazed him and moved on” sentiment. We live in a society, sometimes frustrating things happened. At least none of us were having the kind of day this guy was.
I guess it is nice you are so compassionate. However out of all the people who were inconvenienced you are only one. There were many people who had to be home for various reasons that could have been majorly important. They could have missed important medical appointments or being there for their children. The perp had none of those people in his concern and deserves no sympathy. They should have gotten him off the track no matter the means.
@moses agreed!
How many hours did he waste of other people’s lives? I’m guessing at least 100,000. That’s almost a year. And what did this fiasco cost? Send him the bill. And we need a Judge to place an order that he MUST take his medications if he is to be out on the streets. And how about a restraining order so he can’t be within 1000 feet of a BART Station?
@chuckie the troll Oh, grow up. Life is hard.
Kevin – thank you for your compassion regarding this poor man. Imagine what it must have taken for him to get to that point. I can only say to all others who love to sit behind keyboards and judge others that you should give thanks that it wasn’t someone you care about.
Manoowa it’s very sad more people don’t have compassion ! I hope no one ever finds themselves in this mans place ….for the past month iv been in intensive out patient therapy program in concord for depression and anxiety (highly recommend the program) I have even more compassion and Love for people who get that low it’s truly a Sickness just like the flu or cancer and once we start seeing depression in that way our world will be a better place ! God bless this man and his family
We do live in a society! A society that invented tasers so one dude couldn’t hold 100,000 people hostage for 7 hours
The BART union held the whole system hostage for several days during a strike and got away with it Scott free a few years ago. They set the precedent. What’s a few hours to do something actually meaningful, like save a life?
Spot on
Comments like these are precisely why I no longer post on Claycord. The lack of compassion is so out of control here with people feeling there ought to be an easy, closed minded solution like “tazering him”. Uhh he was ON THE EDGE of the freaking tracks. A tazer could cause his body to fall off the side. Next time, think before you comment.
As for the whole “people had to get home”….maybe this guy just lost his home and needs someone who cares? Thank goodness the people here weren’t involved or else he’d likely kill himself. It’s truly sad what a lack of manners and empathy we have nowadays due to self centered, immature folks who think other commitments that can be rescheduled or made up for later (Such as time with family) ought to take precedence over a person who needs a friend. Try to stop being so “I, I, I, Me, Me, Me” and grow up.
Sorry but you have no compassion for the people who needed to be home. You have no idea of the importance of some peoples needs to be home or at work. In nine cars of people there may have been a few who had more need than the idiot up on the track.
@ Jason
Yet you just post here…. Ironic isn’t it?
There is a special place in hell for people who choose to take their own lives by hurting innocent bystanders.
This applies not only to suicide bombers, but also to those who commit suicide-by-cop and suicide-by-train. Do you know what kind of damage this does to cops, engineers, conductors, etc? I don’t think so. Only someone who tried and failed to stop a 400 ton train going at 80mph or someone who had to go out to find body pieces scattered along the track can understand it.
That’s why this kind of behaviour can’t be justified by anything – not your hypothetical loss of home, not equally hypothetical “need of a friend”, not even severe clinical depression. The only exception may be legal insanity, like an acute psychosis with persecutory delusions.
That man on BART tracks surely wasn’t suffering from an acute psychosis. Why? Because people with acute psychosis don’t engage in 8 hr long negotiations.
As for “self-centered immature folks” – who are you to decide that their lives and commitments are unimportant?
How can we miss you if you won’t stay gone?
Well stated I applaud you Jason ! Ur perspective brought tears to my eyes!
In the end, authorities moved in and physically removed him. Seems like that should have been done hours sooner. And yes, I understand the context of the situation. Put him in a mental facility, for his own protection.
There are hundreds/thousands of tortured souls in the Bay Area…along with tens of thousands with a bone to pick…so is the msg; unless you let each and every one pull a stunt like this, you are a cold-hearted sob?
They should have removed him much earlier as the power was turned off. This just sends a message that it is alright to disrupt the rest of the world because I want attention. Sorry sympathy is waning due to all the other entitlement wonders that live amongst us.
I consider myself “liberal”, the I believe the majority should NOT have to suffer for the drama of one idiot — be he one billionaire, or one 52-year old lunatic. If you are having a suicide attempt, for God’s sake, do it at home, away from everyone else. Yes, compassion is missing. The 52-year old trespassing drama queen with missing compassion for the innocent 20,000 people trying to go home!! Yes, they should have tased him — after setting up a net to catch him. Then he should be fined for all the cost to the public — police time, extra BART staff, and County Connection buses. He’s a selfish Baby Boomer, what’s new?
@Brain Power Looks like your “brain power” is powered off. 52 years old isn’t Baby Boomer. It’s Gen-X..
I too was among the hundreds put off the trains in pleasant hill. And i for one am glad that this man is ok…Let me ask a question….Now, we have ALL had our own share of bad times, from the time we were kids to now… And in that time there has been atleast one hardship thhat you went through when you felt like either noone cared, or you felt so guilty for something you had done, and wanted to run away and die. Well maybe his was something to that effect.. Maybe he lost his job, causing his family to become homeless, oe maybe he is homeless and has not family , and this society we live in thats cold hearted and turns their backs on homeless people, maybe he just couldnt take it anymore… Not all homeless people are there of theirr own free will… Some of them were upstanding citizens, with great jobs and families.and that one day comes along, ( just as it could fo you as well) we are ALL one paycheck away from being homeless.DONT EVER FORGET THAT!!! They didnt choose to be there, and the streets are vicious. They suck you into alcohol and drugs, a.m. ng other things. Things you would Anever do before you ended up there. But on the streets its survival…. And unless you havebfamily to fall back on or good friends to help you through those tough times. You do what you have to to survive… And if your all alone you on guard 24-7, mentally and physically… And that takes a toll on a human… Im sure that others agdee with me when i say, i was ok being put out alittle bit of time, as i ng as it saved someones life…we need to slow down anyway ..we need to remember NONE of us are immune from a break down of sorts.. Wouldnt. You be greatful that someone saved your I fe instead of traumatizing you even more? Or let. You die? Be good to eachother…we ALL have feelings….ANGELS ON YOUR SHOULDERS….