Follow Up on The Nia Wilson Murder Case

 

 Malika Harris places a candle down for her sister Nia Wilson at a makeshift memorial outside the MacArthur Bay Area Rapid Transit station, Monday, July 23, 2018, in Oakland. -- PICTURE SOURCE: CNN.  

The sad part about this entire situation is this wont be the last story we read about a thug of this kind attacking innocent women or even men. While police and investigators go back and forth on whether or not John Cowell vicious attack was racially motivated, I just hope he's punished to the full extent. We already know he's going to play the "crazy" card and what to expect, he just needs to be punished for what he did. In my personal opinion I do believe this probably was a racially motivated attack. It's extremely ironic the race that claims minorities are the most violent and should be feared, are the ones who are committing some of the most barbaric crimes of all time.

THE LATEST 

Nia Wilson was standing on a Bay Area Rapid Transit station platform in Oakland, California, Sunday night when she was stabbed to death in an apparently unprovoked attack. 

By Monday night, John Cowell, 27, had been arrested in connection to the stabbing, but days later, officials still haven't said what prompted the attack, which a police chief compared to a "prison yard assault."

 

The random murder of Wilson -- a black teenager described by her family as loving and selfless -- prompted nearly 1,000 people to march in Oakland in a vigil for Wilson early this week, according to an estimate by the Oakland police. 

 

Some have claimed the attack was racially motivated, because Cowell is white, though the BART police and the Alameda County District Attorney's Office have said they don't have evidence to back up that claim. Cowell's family released a statement that said he had been struggling with mental illness. 

 

But Wilson's family members and others in the community feel the murder should be considered a hate crime, regardless of what caused the fatal stabbing.

 

"It is a hate crime," Malika Harris, Wilson's 25-year-old sister told CNN on Thursday. "That's how I feel, okay?"

CONCLUSION SO FAR

In a statement, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf recognized the murder would cause "deep pain," regardless of whether it was motivated by race. 

 

"Although investigators currently have no evidence to conclude that this tragedy was racially motivated or that the suspect was affiliated with any hate groups, the fact that his victims were both young African American women stirs deep pain and palpable fear in all of us who acknowledge the reality that our country still suffers from a tragic and deeply racist history," she said.

Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley, whose office is prosecuting Cowell, said her office is still investigating whether the stabbing could be a hate crime, KGO reported. 

"There has to be evidence that it was motivated by hate and in this case, whether it was motivated by their gender or by their race, we're still gathering the evidence to look at that," she said Wednesday.

 

Allums, the godfather, isn't sure if the attack was racially motivated, but it won't change the fact that his goddaughter is gone. 

 

"I don't know if it was racist," he said. "I don't know if it was random. I don't know these crazies. I don't know what it is. I know that my baby is dead. And it's a senseless death." 

 

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