Arraignment for man who allegedly shoved victim into BART train delayed again
A judge on Tuesday again delayed the arraignment of a man charged with murder for allegedly fatally shoving a woman into an oncoming BART train in San Francisco last week, as a mental health team evaluates the defendant in a medical facility.
Prosecutors said they charged Trevor Belmont, 49, also known as Hoak Taing, for the July 1 killing. They accuse the defendant of fatally shoving 74-year-old Corazon Dandan into the path of a Millbrae-bound train at the Powell Street BART station. Dandan died at a hospital, according to San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins.
Belmont was taken into custody at the station, according to police.
Dandan's nephew, Alvin Dandan, told CBS News Bay Area last week she was a telephone operator at multiple hotels, primarily the Westin St. Francis. He also said while she didn't need to work anymore to meet any financial needs, Dandan kept working because she loved her job.
He said Dandan originally worked for Westin in the Philippines, then decided to move to the United States to work for Westin in San Francisco.
He also said she preferred working the night shifts because she was "a night owl" and would usually get off very late.
Dandan would regularly take the BART from Daly City to Powell Street, according to her nephew.
"We told her it's dangerous to BART stations," he said. "[The family] told her to stop doing the commute."
Belmont was charged with one count of murder in the case last week, according to the San Francisco District Attorney's Office.
Belmont's arraignment had already been delayed twice -- on Friday and Monday -- because of his hospitalization. Before pushing the arraignment to Wednesday, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Brian Stretch explained the delay to Dandan's family, who appeared via video.
"To tell you the truth, I don't want to think about him," safety advocate Marlene Tran said Monday about the defendant, dabbing her eyes. "My heart is with the victim."
Tran, a 77-year-old retired ESL teacher, is a board member of Stop Crime SF, an advocacy group that monitors court proceedings among other anti-crime activism. She carries business cards with the phone number of the police tip line in English and Chinese.
She said she has tried since the 1980s to bring awareness to the linguistic and cultural reasons why senior Asian-American Pacific Islanders can be especially vulnerable to crime.
"They were just in, you might say, in some ways perfect crime victims," Tran said in the courtroom hallway. Tran explained that many elder AAPI Bay Area residents rely on public transit to remain self-reliant after they no longer drive and may work odd hours, carry cash because of barriers to banking or have cultural reticence to report crimes.
"We're going to band together and support cases like this and make a big awareness," said Tran, who speaks Cantonese, Vietnamese and Mandarin as well as English. She called for security-related signage in more languages as well as more cameras and cautionary floor stripes on public transit.
Tran came Monday with two other members of Stop Crime SF.
"The thought that somebody could come up behind you and push you into a train is terrifying," fellow Stop Crime SF board member Susan Fisch said Monday.
Almost 80 years old, Fisch said that treating this crime as an isolated incident could be a "missed opportunity" to examine greater street crime risk factors in the Bay Area, like mental health care.
BART police ask anyone with information about the case to call their tip line at (510) 464-7000 or text them at (510) 200-0992. Tipsters may remain anonymous.
