A homeless man allegedly pushed a 74-year-old woman into an arriving commuter train in downtown San Francisco, resulting in her death, police reported Tuesday.
The incident occurred at Powell Street station shortly after 11 p.m. on Monday. The woman struck her head on the train and fell onto the platform. She was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Police arrested a 49-year-old man described as transient early Tuesday and booked him into jail.
The victim has not been publicly identified, and police have not determined a motive for the attack. The investigation is ongoing.
Homicides are uncommon on BART, which serves much of the Bay Area, and this is the first homicide reported this year.
In a similar incident in New York City, a passenger died in March after being pushed into a subway train by someone experiencing mental health issues. Two years ago, another incident in NYC saw a homeless man push an Asian American woman into a subway train at Times Square, resulting in her death.
Although such random acts of violence garner significant attention, advocates for the homeless point out that homeless individuals are more often victims rather than perpetrators of crime.