By Demian Bulwa
The San Francisco Chronicle
SAN FRANCISCO — The BART police officer who fatally shot a knife-wielding transient in San Francisco earlier this month was working one of his last shifts before a planned move to the FBI, but the job change is on hold during the shooting probe.
The officer, identified by sources Tuesday as James Crowell, rescinded his resignation from BART and has been cleared to return to duty.
But his plan to become an FBI agent raises the stakes of investigations about the July 3 shooting at Civic Center Station that are being conducted by BART and San Francisco police.
Crowell’s attorney, Harry Stern, said Tuesday that his client would still join the FBI after he is cleared of wrongdoing. A spokeswoman for the agency did not return a call seeking comment.
Crowell was hired early last year from the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department, records show. He shot Charles Blair Hill, 45, after Hill advanced on him and a partner with a knife with a 4-inch blade and then wound up to throw the weapon, BART said.
BART officials released footage from a platform camera last week that shows Crowell and his partner arriving on a train in response to a report of a drunken man with an open bottle. The video does not show Hill, who is out of view.
BART officials said Hill first threw his bottle, and that a second officer - identified by sources as six-year veteran Myron Lee - slipped on liquid from it.
Fourteen seconds after arriving, Crowell backed away and drew his pistol, the footage shows. At this point, officials said, Lee was on the ground.
Another three seconds elapsed, with Crowell saying something, but BART’s cameras do not capture audio. BART Police Chief Kenton Rainey said the officer was ordering Hill to drop the knife.
The video shows what appears to be the firing of the gun and, an instant later, an object appearing in view. The object - which Rainey said was the knife - hit the train car and ricocheted back.
Some police watchdogs have questioned whether Hill posed a grave threat to the officer, and have wondered why Crowell didn’t use his Taser to subdue Hill.
Stern said he expected officers to be scrutinized when they use deadly force. But he said “antipolice agitators” who have protested the shooting, and another fatal police shooting in San Francisco, have “revealed their true colors. ... They want cops shot or stabbed before they are allowed to use force.”
Charles Blair Hill was fatally shot by a BART officer July 3.
Copyright 2011 San Francisco Chronicle