Naked Acrobat Terrorizes BART Riders At SF Station
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) - A naked man was caught on camera harassing passengers at a San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit station last month.
In the newly released videotape, the man identified as 24-year-old acrobat Yeiner Perez can be seen lunging at people, doing handstands and backflips. The video was recorded by a station agent on her cellphone on May 10th at the 16th and Mission streets BART Station.
The agent was trying to shelter a woman who was accosted by Perez. She can be heard encouraging the woman, who is audibly shaken to get inside the booth to escape the naked man.
BART spokesman Jim Allison told KCBS that the station agent did everything right that day when she called for help.
"It appears that the man walked into the station, off the street and although there were plenty of people around who saw him acting erratically, no one called police until our station agent stepped up and called 911 and that's exactly what the station agents are directed to do in their manual," said Allison.
Naked Acrobat Terrorizes BART Riders At SF Station
Police officers did not arrive to apprehend Perez for several minutes, prompting questions from a station agent at the scene. According to BART representatives, officers arrived within 7 minutes despite handling reports of a person entering a tunnel elsewhere on the system.
Perez was arrested and taken to the hospital for psychiatric evaluation. He was later released.
According to SFist, Perez was previously listed as a member of a Berkeley performing group known as Clown Snot Bombs. He began missing practice and was eventually dropped from the group around the time of the video.
The blog also reports that officers no longer know where he is. There is currently an outstanding warrant for his arrest on suspicion of misdemeanor battery.
The video surfaced this week as unions representing BART operators and management battle over contract extensions. Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555, used still images of the incident in a six-minute YouTube video that illustrates the problematic and potentially dangerous working conditions at many station on the system in an effort to gain leverage for negotiations.
Union President Antonette Bryant said agents face hostility all the time.
"How much is a person's life worth, because are they waiting for someone to get killed before they protect them?" Bryant asked.
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