3 stabbed at Lafayette BART Station; assailant sought in platform attack

BART police shut down Lafayette Station after three people were stabbed on the platform during an attempted robbery Sunday morning. BART police shut down Lafayette Station after three people were stabbed on the platform during an attempted robbery Sunday morning. Photo: Michael Cabanatuan / The Chronicle / Michael Cabanatuan / The Chronicle Photo: Michael Cabanatuan / The Chronicle / Michael Cabanatuan / The Chronicle Image 1 of / 32 Caption Close 3 stabbed at Lafayette BART Station; assailant sought in platform attack 1 / 32 Back to Gallery

A triple stabbing during an attempted robbery on a Lafayette BART platform Sunday morning alarmed riders on the region’s central transit system, while agency police officials, who have been grappling with a recent surge in crime, worked to catch the assailant.

The violence erupted on what had been a serene morning at one of BART’s statistically safest stations, as riders — many occasional weekend transit users — lined up to head into San Francisco for Fleet Week and the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival.

BART police closed the station for four hours while they searched for evidence, pulled security video of the attack and brought in cleaning crews to mop up the bloody aftermath of the violence.

Two victims were treated for wounds at John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek and were expected to survive. A third victim left the station without speaking to police, authorities said.

BART officials hoped their extensive network of security cameras in stations and on trains captured video of the assailant, and planned to release any pictures of the man Monday, said Taylor Huckaby, a BART spokesman.

“Hopefully we will have a good picture,” he said. “We want to catch this guy.”

Law enforcement officials from various jurisdictions, including Lafayette police, joined in the search for the attacker, who they believe fled the scene on foot into the nearby neighborhood.

He was described as white, unshaven, in his 30s or 40s with blond hair, wearing a green army jacket and carrying a black backpack.

Riders showing up at the station throughout the morning and early afternoon were greeted by a single strand of yellow police tape at the entrance, where police and BART employees turned them away without giving details about the crime.

BART provided shuttle buses to nearby Orinda and Walnut Creek stations as trains moved through Lafayette without stopping during the investigation.

Many riders were unsettled when they learned what had happened at their local BART station that morning, but few said it would deter them from continuing to ride.

“I’m stunned — shocked at what happened,” said 34-year-old Lafayette resident Kevin Motl. “You never know. Something could happen any time and any place.”

The attack happened around 9:45 a.m. when the man in the army jacket approached a 20-year-old man on the platform and demanded his backpack.

When the victim refused, the assailant pulled out a knife and cut him across the forehead, officials said.

A second victim was stabbed in the hand during the ensuing attack. Both men were recovering at the hospital.

Police were working to identify a third victim, who witnesses said was stabbed but left the area without speaking to investigators.

Police did not say whether the victims knew each other or the assailant.

The stabbing prompted chaos on BART as paramedics treated the victims and police stopped and searched trains to no avail at nearby Pleasant Hill Station.

Lafayette Station was reopened at 1:45 p.m. as things returned to normal.

The attack is the latest in a series of high-profile crimes on the Bay Area’s backbone transit system, prompting increased patrols on trains and at stations.

In the first half of this year, robberies went up 35 percent and assaults were up 27 percent compared with the same period in 2016, agency figures released to The Chronicle revealed.

Lafayette Station, one of BART’s safest, has been largely immune to the kind of crimes that are mostly concentrated in a handful of stations in Oakland and San Francisco, in neighborhoods with relatively high crime rates.

“Our stations are snapshots of the communities we serve,” Huckaby said. “And Lafayette is not a high-crime area.”

Kristen Setliff, a 38-year-old physician from Lafayette, was one of about a dozen passengers who boarded the first train bound for San Francisco after the station reopened. She said the stabbing caused her to rethink taking BART.

“That is really crazy,” she said after learning of the triple stabbing. “But driving would be so much harder. BART is perfect for getting around.”

Others were undeterred by news of the violence, noting that in urban areas, trouble can happen anywhere.

“If you ride BART a lot, you know things can happen,” said Moraga resident Cameron Patera, a 19-year-old student at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill. “Because BART runs through everywhere, you can see someone violent or unstable, which this person probably was, in a place like Lafayette where people assume everyone is peaches and cream.”

BART, which swore in new Police Chief Carlos Rojas in May, said it is aware of riders’ concerns and is working to boost patrols.

“We are doing our best to hire more officers and to make sure our passengers feel safe,” Huckaby said. “If no one feels safe, no one will ride BART, and that’s a problem for any transit agency.”

Evan Sernoffsky and Michael Cabanatuan are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com, mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky, @ctuan