Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Transit police probe officer-rider fracas

|
|
 
  
Published: Nov. 24, 2009 at 7:55 AM

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 24 (UPI) -- San Francisco transit police are quizzing witnesses to an altercation that ended when an officer forced a man against transit station window that shattered.

Daniel Hartwig, Bay Area Rapid Transit police force patrol commander, said detectives have identified and begun interviewing a dozen witnesses to the weekend incident at BART's West Oakland station, CNN reported Tuesday.

"We will take our time and we will cover everything that needs to be covered," Hartwig said.

The incident was videotaped and posted on the Internet, but since has been removed, officials said. The video showed the man, Michael Joseph Gibson, being removed from the train by an officer who had Gibson in a firm grip while walking him toward the station wall that included large windows. In the video, the officer forced Gibson against the window, which shattered.

Why the glass broke remained unclear, officials said. The officer sustained facial cuts and a concussion, while Gibson had cuts to his hand, forearm, palm and head.

Police also released the tape of 911 calls in which witnesses and a train operator complained that Gibson seemed drunk and belligerent, CNN said.

Gibson, 37, of San Leandro, Calif., was charged with battery on a police officer with injury and resisting arrest, both felonies, and public intoxication, a misdemeanor, in the Saturday incident.

His sister, Lisa Gibson, told CNN her brother was diagnosed with bipolar-schizophrenic disorder and is under a doctor's care.

Hartwig said police "can't assume this person was mentally unstable."

© 2009 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
The Tibetan Moniam Festival in China Super Bowl XLVI ticker tape victory parade The making of the Oscars
The Chicago Auto Show The Most Desirable Women of 2012 Tu Bishvat Migron settlement
Additional U.S. News Stories
1 of 21
President Obama Signs Smuggling Prevention Act at White House
View Caption
fark
You're a female air traveler and there's no female TSA agent to screen you? No problem, there's...
Despite their efforts to convince you otherwise, many "foodies" can't, in a blind taste test, tell...
Photoshop this urban underground dweller
Kim Jong Un Dead. I repeat - Un Dead
Nothing is more romantic on Valentine's Day than taking your lover on a tour of New York's sewers...
Man arrested for writing 'bomb' on some toilet paper. "His family says the word 'bomb' is often...