Video of BART Police Shooting Shows Woman Try to Drive Off After Tense Stop

Body camera footage released by BART police on Friday showed an officer shooting at a woman three times last month at the Union City station parking lot. Just over five minutes before the shooting, the traffic stop nearly ended without incident.

Jasmine Gao, 32, survived the shooting. The officer was identified as Nicholas Poblete, who has been with BART for over six years and is currently assigned to its Operations Bureau, the department’s release said.

Officers responded to the station on the night of Nov. 18 for a report of reckless driving, according to BART’s release, but the body camera footage shows that they determined Gao wasn’t responsible. After the officers began to question her over expired registration, Gao “displayed erratic behavior,” did not comply when officers asked her to get out of her car, then rolled up her window and accelerated forward when an officer reached into the car, the department said.

The video shows Gao express several times how fearful she was when police accused her of doing donuts while she was parked in a parking lot. She becomes increasingly agitated as Poblete grows more stern and demands she get out of her car.

Gao was treated at a hospital and later discharged. BART’s announcement didn’t say how many times Gao had been shot and where other than “in the upper torso.”

As with all police shootings, the case has been referred to the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office to determine whether Poblete, Gao or an unnamed second officer at the scene should face criminal charges.

“Due to the seriousness of this incident, we have retained an experienced third-party investigator to conduct the internal administrative investigation to ensure an unbiased and objective review,” BART Police Chief Kevin Franklin said in a statement. “BART remains committed to continuous improvement and ensuring the actions of our police officers meet the highest of standards.”

Russell Bloom, BART’s independent police auditor, said his office responded to the scene of the shooting to monitor BART’s investigation, but as of Friday, his office has not received any complaint of misconduct in connection with the shooting.

Bloom said he’s working with Franklin to ensure the independent auditor’s office has the same access as the third-party investigators that BART police brought in, as it’s “a departure from our standard approach to monitoring investigations conducted by the BPD Internal Affairs Unit.”

“Our goal is to ensure that any investigation of this shooting is objective, thorough, fair, and timely,” Bloom said.

Poblete has been placed on administrative leave during the investigation, BART said.

What the body camera shows

The time code on the body camera when the footage starts reads 9:24 p.m. on Nov. 18 as Poblete stops his SUV behind a dark-colored sedan with tinted windows. An unnamed officer stops his SUV off to the front of the sedan. The parking lot is largely empty, but Poblete leaves his emergency lights flashing.

“Roll down your back windows, please,” Poblete yells as he walks toward the car and shines a flashlight into the driver’s side window.

“Sorry, no,” Gao responds, her head poking out of the window. “There’s no one here,” she says as she rolls down the window, saying she was parked because she was talking to a friend on the phone.

Poblete tells her they are investigating a complaint of a car matching hers doing donuts in the parking lot.

“I don’t know how to do donuts,” she says. “I’m not that good at driving.”

After a few minutes of back-and-forth — during which the woman says her name is Raisa Gao — the other officer touches Gao’s front driver’s side tire. “Yeah, it’s not hot,” he says.

“All right. Have a good night, ma’am,” Poblete says as he turns away.

“Sorry,” the other officer says.

Poblete takes a few steps away and then turns back, telling Gao that his dispatcher says her registration expired. “I do have to address that,” he says.

“Oh, no, I just went to the DMV,” Gao says, immediately becoming defensive and flustered.

As Poblete tries to tell her about her registration being invalid, she repeatedly interrupts and asks whether she can go home nearby.

“I’m just nervous because of all the lights,” she says, gesturing to the flashing emergency lights around her.

Poblete again asks for her driver’s license, registration and proof of insurance.

“Don’t scare me right now,” she says. “I’m really tired.”

Poblete’s tone grows more stern as he says that he doesn’t like her interrupting him and that she is required to give him the documents he requested. Gao becomes increasingly flustered.

“Do me a favor, ma’am,” Poblete says. “Because you’re freaking out…”

“It’s because you’re cops,” Gao says, “and I’m just in a parking lot.”

“Can you turn off your vehicle and then can I see your keys? Please?”

“No,” Gao says. “That’s illegal.”

“No, it’s not,” Poblete says.

Gao then snatches her ID out of Poblete’s hand, and he reaches into the car and grabs Gao by the arm. “Get out of the vehicle,” he says repeatedly.

“Stop!” The two struggle for about 30 seconds.

“Ma’am, I’m going to pepper spray you,” Poblete says.

“No! Stop! You’re scaring me!” she says, putting the keys in the ignition as Poblete continues to hold onto her arm.

“Ma’am, I’m going to shoo…” Poblete says as Gao’s window rolls up and she drives away.

Poblete fires three times at the car. It stops a short distance away in the same parking lot. Poblete calls in “shots fired,” gets into his SUV, drives closer to Gao’s vehicle, then parks and stands with his door open, gun pointed at Gao.

Gao, bleeding as the two officers approach her open car door, cries, “Oh my God! What did you do to me? I’m just a girl!”

They cuff her hands behind her back and attempt to give her medical aid.

“You’re killing me,” she says. “I didn’t even do anything. Why would you hurt me?”

A crowd of people begins to gather as Gao yells out for someone to call her mother and rolls on the ground.

“Stop!” Poblete yells at her. “We’re trying to help you! You keep on moving. You’re gonna keep on bleeding! We’re trying to save your life!”

“Why did you shoot her?” one onlooker yells.

More officers arrive as they try to find Gao’s wounds. In the background, people in the crowd yell at officers as they wait for medical help.

When it does, a paramedic says the handcuffs on Gao need to come off so they can properly treat her.