UNION CITY, Calif. (KGO) — BART and the family of a young woman shot in the back by one of its officers have agreed on a $6.75 million settlement, the transit agency said in a joint statement issued with the family on Friday.
Aside from the monetary compensation, the public transit agency is also acknowledging that the initial story it put out to the public, which alleged Jasmine Gao had assaulted an officer, was inaccurate.
On November 18, 2024, BART police officers approached Gao in the Union City station parking lot. Officers had stopped her after reports of someone making donuts with their car. Once realizing Gao was not the person they were looking for, she was about to drive off until the officer pointed out an issue with her license and registration.
The encounter quickly escalated.
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Body-camera footage later released showed officer Nicolas Poblete firing three times as Gao tried to drive off. Gao was hit in the back, with the bullet passing between her heart and a major artery. In the footage, you hear Gao panicking and asking for her mother. She was hospitalized, but survived.
In the hours after the shooting, BART leaders claimed that Gao had dragged the officer with her car.
Now BART admits: “While it was alleged that Ms. Gao assaulted the officers with her vehicle and that was the reason for the shots being fired, the body-worn camera shows that allegation was not accurate.”
BART also acknowledged that no officer was ever endangered.
Gao’s family said the initial story damaged her reputation and caused devastation to the entire family.
“One thing that was very important for the family and for Jasmine was that BART acknowledged that the initial representations, which painted Jasmine as someone who was an aggressor, someone who was trying to hurt the police, that that was not true,” said Ben Nisenbaum, Gao’s attorney. Even more traumatically was how close she came to dying.”
RELATED: BART police shoot woman outside Union City station, agency says
Gao still has limited use in one arm and shrapnel still in parts of her body, leaving scars.
Her family hopes her story will help bring an end to police brutality and remind public officials of their responsibility to tell the truth.
“It’s important that BART has taken responsibility,” said Nisenbaum. “And I feel like that ought to be something that more departments do.”
Officer Poblete was placed on paid administrative leave when this happened. BART now says its third-party investigation is complete and it plans to issue a notice of intent to terminate his employment.
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