BART police looking for sexual battery suspect who allegedly groped woman on train

BERKELEY, Calif. (KTVU) - BART police are looking for a man suspected of sexual battery on a Warm Springs-bounds train. According to police, the incident, where he allegedly groped a woman, happened Wednesday, May 24 around 8:35 p.m. 

Police have released two surveillance images of the suspect described as a black male, possibly 20-25 years old and is about 5'8". He was said to have exited the at North Berkeley Station 10 minutes after the assault where police say he sat next to a woman, attempted to engage in conversation with her and then groped her.

The suspect then fled the station. The victim also exited the train at North Berkeley where she reported what happened to a station agent who immediately called police.  

Police say the victim didn't know what car number the victim was in or what time she boarded the train. However, police were able to figure out the timeframe by reviewing station surveillance images. 

"This presents a challenge to quickly find the incident train car but those efforts are underway," said BART Spokeswoman Alicia Trost. "To view video from inside the incident car we must pull the potential cars from service and then retrieve the video and review it.  This is taking place now but we didn't want to wait to get the image of the suspect from inside our station out to the public."

You are asked to contact BART Police if you see the suspect or may know him.  The images and information will be shared with partner law enforcement agencies as well.

The surveillance images released today is from the Richmond station.  As of this week, there are only 35 out of 669 train cars that still need new cameras, according to BART. The installation work will be done by the end of June.

Anyone with information can contact BART Police at 510-464-7040. If you want to remain anonymous you can call 510-464-7011.