BART Police release video of officer shooting driver in East Bay parking lot
A 32-year-old woman shot by police as she fled a brief struggle last month bled profusely while continually asking a BART officer why he shot her as rescuers — including the officer who fired — attended to her in the parking lot of the transit system’s Union City station.
Those details and others from the Nov. 18 shooting, which followed a report of reckless driving in a parking lot, emerged in body-camera video that BART released Friday. Officials also announced an independent third-party investigation of the incident, which came under quick criticism from outside experts who watched the video.
The footage came from the body-worn cameras of the two officers who confronted 32-year-old Jasmine Gao to ask about reports of a driver spinning out in the parking lot before the shooting. BART Police identified the officer who did the shooting as Officer Nicholas Poblete, a 6½-year veteran of the department.
Gao, 32, survived the shooting and has been discharged from a hospital, BART officials said Friday.
The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office has not publicly announced any charges filed against Gao in connection with the incident. The DA’s office declined to comment on the case when contacted Friday by the Bay Area News Group. Online jail records did not show her in custody on Friday afternoon.
After the shooting, the Bay Area News Group reported that Gao had two active arrest warrants for failing to appear in court over two earlier misdemeanor cases unrelated to the BART station incident. There was no indication from BART that the officers who confronted her on the night of the shooting were aware of the warrants, which were related to 2023 cases where Gao was accused of brandishing weapons on two separate occasions.
The video that BART released was unedited, with the only redactions those that are required by law, BART Police Chief Kevin Franklin said in a statement.
“I want to assure the public that all aspects of this incident will be thoroughly investigated,” Franklin said. “Due to the seriousness of the incident, we have retained an experienced third-party investigator to conduct the internal administrative investigation to ensure an unbiased and objective review.”
Two policing experts who briefly reviewed the video at the request of the Bay Area News Group said Friday afternoon that they saw numerous reasons why the shooting may not have been justified.
Roger Clark, a police consultant who worked at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for 27 years and has testified as an expert in cases concerning the use of police force, said that “there’s no credible threat to life” shown on the video.
“She’s driving away. It looks to me like nobody’s in the way. So any claim that they’re in danger of being run over appears specious based on what I’m seeing. And without that, you don’t have a scintilla of credibility to use lethal force in this circumstance.”
Seth Stoughton, professor of law and professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of South Carolina, said that the stop began as a “garden variety traffic stop gone bad.”
“Things are not going quite the way that they should, because the motorist is not doing the kinds of things that she should be doing, like listening to the officers,” he said. “But it’s not extreme, it’s not egregious. It’s well within the sort of normal range of non-compliance that officers have to deal with on a daily basis.”
BART police were called to the Union City station on Nov. 18 at about 9 p.m. on reports of someone driving recklessly in the parking lot.
Poblete’s camera shows him walking up to Gao in her car as she is parked horizontally across several parking spaces. They ask her to roll down her windows so they can see inside the car, and she complies. Poblete informs her that her dark sedan matches the description of one reported to have been performing doughnuts in the parking lot.
Gao tells the officer, “I don’t know how to do doughnuts” and tells them that “I’m not good at driving” with a chuckle. Another officer touches her car’s front tire, informing Poblete that “it’s not hot.”
About 90 seconds after the initial contact, the officers tell Gao to “have a good night.” As they turn to leave, Poblete quickly turns back to Gao, telling her that his dispatcher has advised him that “your license … out of registration. I do have to address that.”
Gao begins to talk about why she is at the station and her issues with the DMV over the vehicle’s registration. Poblete admonishes her not to speak over him and asks again for the paperwork related to the vehicle; she hands him a card from her wallet, asking at one point for the officers to let her go home and saying she is “nervous because of all the lights,” requesting that the police “don’t scare me.”
Poblete, citing her agitation, asks her to turn off the vehicle and hand over her keys. She replies, “No … my keys? That’s illegal,” then appears to snatch the card out his hand as he leans on the driver’s side window. Poblete immediately begins wrestling with her, ordering her out of the vehicle.
Gao resists, saying “no” and “stop” repeatedly and asking, “Why?” Poblete tells her, “I’m gonna pepper spray you” as he and the other officer attempt to get her out of the car. She repeatedly tells them, “Here’s my keys,” though it’s unclear if she is actually offering the keys to them.
Poblete shouts, “I’m gonna sh …” before cutting off the word midway through. A split-second later, Gao begins to drive away. Poblete quickly pulls his service weapon and fires three rounds. The other officer does not appear to pull his gun.
The car stops a short distance away. The police jump into their own vehicles and drive closer. Poblete points his gun at Gao again after coming to a stop and emerging from his car, yelling at her again to get out of her vehicle. The other officer approaches — with keys in his hand, not a weapon — and walks right up to Gao.
She can be heard yelling as the officers rush to her car: “I’m gonna die! I’m bleeding! Oh my God! What did you do?” She gets out of the car, and the officers tell her they are going to handcuff her, then provide medical aid.
“You were dragging us from the car,” one officer says. Gao replies: “No, I didn’t. … There’s blood everywhere!” Her shirt is covered in blood as she lies on her back on the ground. More police appear, contending with a gathering crowd of onlookers. Gao shouts for one of them to call her mother.
“I didn’t do anything illegal,” Gao shouts to them. “I didn’t do anything illegal. Please get their names. Please get their names before I die.”
BART police officers should only shoot at a moving vehicle under “exigent circumstances” such as when the driver is targeting people with the “intent to cause great bodily injury or death” and when there are “no other reasonable means available to avert the threat,” according to the department’s policy manual.
Stoughton said: “In this situation, the vehicle is traveling forward, right? It’s driving away, and by the time the officer fires … they are nowhere near the path of travel of that vehicle. They are not at risk of being dragged. They are not at risk of being struck.
“There is no imminent threat of death or great bodily harm to the officer or others at that point. That shooting is inappropriate.”
Clark added that there has to be a “totality of circumstance” for an officer to reasonably discharge a firearm that includes criteria such as the seriousness of the alleged crime, the weapons the suspect has and the threat to the officers.
“There has to be what’s called immediate defense of life,” he said. “That doesn’t exist here.”
Clark added that if there is no way to stop a suspect in a similar situation, the guidance would be to let them go and put it out on the radio.
“It does not appear justified,” he said.
BART police said that Poblete had been placed on paid administrative leave.
VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED: Video contains graphic content.
Staff writers Nate Gartell and Harry Harris contributed to this report.