BART police under scrutiny for body slam

BART police are reviewing an incident on a train at the Pittsburg/Bay Point station last week in which an officer slammed a woman to the ground as he attempted to detain her.

More than one passenger captured footage of the incident via cellphone as the train was stopped at the Pittsburg/Bay Point station last Wednesday night.

An officer at the station was called around 9:30 p.m. to respond to reports that a woman aboard a San Francisco International Airport-bound train was acting erratically, pounding on the windows and trying to pry open the train doors as they left the station, according to a BART police report.

When the officer arrived on the train he found a woman who appeared to be passed out and attempted to arrest her on suspicion of public intoxication, police said.

A video posted by a fellow passenger on YouTube shows the officer trying to handcuff the woman, who repeatedly asks why he is hurting her.

At one point the video shows the officer suddenly slam the woman on the ground. The man recording the video and other passengers can be heard commenting on the officer’s treatment of the woman and the woman herself began crying and continued to resist arrest.

Paramedics and additional BART police officers arrived a short time later and took the woman into custody. She was arrested on suspicion of public intoxication and resisting arrest and taken to a hospital for medical clearance before being booked into county jail in Martinez.

Police said the woman was believed to be under the influence of alcohol and methamphetamine at the time of the incident.

BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost said BART police are reviewing footage from a camera worn by the officer involved in the use of force as well as other information:

“The standard use of force review is taking place now just as with all use of force incidents. … That review makes it to the chief’s office.”

Trost said she could not release the name of the officer involved or the woman who was arrested until a report on the use of force is complete.

As of this afternoon, no one had come forward to file a complaint against the officer, who has not been placed on leave or disciplined, she said.