The protests over Nia Wilson’s murder, explained

The protests over Nia Wilson’s murder, explained

Nia Wilson, 18, and her sister, 26-year-old Lahtifa, were simply changing trains at a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) station in Oakland, California, on Sunday when it happened: A man suddenly approached them, stabbed Nia, and wounded Lahtifa. Nia was pronounced dead at the scene.

On Monday, John Lee Cowell, 27, was arrested for the attack, ending a one-day manhunt.

But the attack has remained in the news throughout the week as the public conversation has shifted to whether the attack — and the authorities’ purportedly slow response to it — was racially motivated.

To many people, the circumstances are obvious: Based on the reporting so far, Nia Wilson and her sister did nothing to provoke their attacker. Yet Cowell allegedly approached them and attacked anyway before running off. And since Cowell is white and Wilson is black, race has become the obvious motive in many people’s minds.

The situation was further inflamed because it took a day for police to catch the suspect, leading to protests in Oakland and other parts of California on Monday calling for justice.

Singer and Oakland native Kehlani captured much of the public sentiment in a tweet: “#BART manages to catch riders who haven’t paid ticket fair, young graffiti artists, you can catch a murderer. give her family some peace and get a murderous white supremecist off of oakland streets.”

The police, for their part, have said that they do not have any evidence that Cowell was racially motivated. “We don’t take anything off the table,” BART Police Chief Carlos Rojas said at a press conference. “While we don’t have any facts that suggest he is connected with any white supremacist group, we are going to explore all types of possibilities and options.”

A BART spokesperson also separately acknowledged some of the criticisms to the New York Times: “People are saying, ‘Why weren’t there officers there?’ There were two officers at that station, but it happened so quick. It all took 20 seconds.”