OAKLAND -- A major transfer station for BART commuters was shut down for almost an hour Thursday morning while police chased a man who eluded them by jumping on top of a train, the station and even onto a nearby freeway, officials said.
BART police arrested the suspect, who was not identified, about 7:12 a.m. after talking him down off a train roof.
But that was after he had led them around, from roof of the station and onto the top of a train, BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost said. During the pursuit, the man also wound up on the BART tracks, out onto Interstate 980 and back on top of a train roof.
Power at the MacArthur station was shut down during the incident, and trains remained in place for approximately 50 minutes.
"We could hear loud footsteps on top of the train, so it was pretty clear somebody was running on the roof," said passenger Jennifer Jamall, 26, who was on a train at MacArthur Station. The sound "was like a velociraptor from Jurassic Park. It was a little scary at first."
Police were first called to the station about 5:27 a.m. for a report of a man on the station's roof. It's wasn't immediately known why he was there.
The incident created a huge delay with the commute. All trains on the Pittsburg/Bay Point and Richmond lines were prevented from going through the MacArthur station, a major transfer point for trains heading to and from San Francisco. Trains on the Fremont-to-Daly City line were not affected, BART
spokeswoman Luna Salaver said.
The California Highway Patrol also shut down two lanes of Highway 24 for a short period of time to assist police, CHP Officer James Evans said. Officers reopened the roadway to traffic at about 7 a.m.
"That was a first for me, definitely a first," said Oakland Fire dispatcher Rachel Brown, who was in her car on the way to work when the chaos occurred. "That ranks up there."
Trains began running again at 7:15 a.m., but residual delays were felt throughout the morning, Salaver said. Also, a train running from Richmond to San Francisco subsequently died on the tracks and remained there for several minutes before powering back up to 10 mph and being taken out of service at the MacArthur Station, Salaver said.