BART: Suspect Arrested in Friday Night Box-Cutter Attack

Update, 5:25 p.m. Tuesday: BART reports that Solomon Espinosa, the 27-year-old Oakland man identified as the suspect in a Friday night slashing incident at MacArthur station, has been taken into custody.

BART said Espinosa was arrested about 1 p.m. Tuesday by a U.S. Marshals' task force at 5th Avenue and East 8th Street. The location is adjacent to Laney College.

BART did not immediately offer further details of the circumstances surrounding the arrest.

Original post (Saturday, Aug. 4): Police are searching for a man suspected of stabbing two people at a BART station in Oakland on Friday.

BART Police say the suspect, Solomon Espinosa, 27, is a transient living in the Oakland area.

The incident started with a fight around 7:50 p.m. on a Richmond-bound train, which spilled out onto the platform at MacArthur Station.

The suspect cut one victim on the arm with a box cutter. The other victim was cut on the cheek. Both have been treated at a hospital and released.

The two men injured in the assault reported it to BART officers. BART surveillance systems also captured the incident, but the circumstances leading to the assault are still unclear.

"Safety is a top priority for the police department and for the district," BART Police Deputy Chief Lance Haight said at a press conference. "We are deploying officers on overtime to be a much more visible presence throughout the system."

"The crime that occurs on BART is largely reflective of the communities that we travel through," Haight said, in response to concerns about whether transit riders should feel safe on BART.

BART police officials say the agency is understaffed and aggressively recruiting more officers.

This is the latest violent incident on BART over the past few weeks, including the fatal stabbing of 18-year-old Nia Wilson on the same platform two weeks ago.