Unseen - The Subway Stalker | The Terrifying Case of Nia Wilson | UNSEEN

Starting point is 00:00:00 Pay attention to the girl in the white shirt. This is 18-year-old Nea Wilson. She's getting off the train to transfer, like many other people in the crowded station. But watch again. This time, don't look at the girl. Instead, watch the man behind her in the white and gray hoodie. He follows her off the train, pulling his hood down and taking off his sunglasses. He looks around as if to plan an escape route.

Starting point is 00:00:25 Then, he reaches down, pulling something out of his pant leg. Look closer. the item he pulled out is a knife. He quickly covers it up with his sweatshirt, but he has it at the ready, and no one else in the busy train station has noticed. The girl he's following, Nia, is on her way home with two of her older sisters, Tasha and Latifah. They just called their dad to let him know they should be back soon, and they wait for the train doors to open. But moments later, the man attacks. Taking advantage of the panic that follows, he blends in with the crowd.

Starting point is 00:00:57 He runs down the stairs and exits the station, running through the gate before seeing police outside. Recorded on an officer's body cam, he pretends to be a witness to the attack, telling them someone was injured on the platform. He waves them up, and they run to the scene to help the girls, unknowingly letting their attacker get away. He escapes from the station without anyone chasing after him, and he runs to a nearby parking structure. Then, he changes into a different hoodie, putting the other in a backpack, and he takes off his shoes and sweatpants. Next, he runs out and over to a bus stop. When a bus pulls up, he fakes an injury so he can get a free ride.

Starting point is 00:01:33 After getting off the bus and away from security cameras, he disappears. He believes he thought of everything to escape justice. But in this footage, police will find the crucial mistake he made during his getaway that will ultimately lead to his capture and avenge the sister's attack. It's July 22, 2018. Around 9.45 p.m., the girl's dad gets a frantic call from me. his daughter to Shia. I couldn't understand what she was saying.

Starting point is 00:02:00 All I could recognize her saying was Bart. I figured maybe they got him in those scrimmings with somebody on Bart. Unsure of what he'll find, he rushes to the car right away and drives to the MacArthur Bart Station, or Bay Area Rapid Transit. All he knows is that his girls are in trouble, but what he sees there is worse than he could ever imagine. When I got there, I see a bunch of ambulance from police. I see them loading the teeth in the ambulance.

Starting point is 00:02:28 I see blood dripping down her arms, and I ask her what happened. She just said, go check on Nia. I turned around, I run up the stairs that boy. I see my daughter body. So I just think I have experienced in my life. Seeing my baby dead. It's impossible for Nia's dad to wrap his head around what he's seeing. In less than three minutes from when she was stabbed in the neck,

Starting point is 00:02:56 Nia has died. Her dad also has the heartbreaking task of calling her mom, Alicia. When she hears what happened, Alicia is shattered. In disbelief, she leaves her home in Sacramento and heads for Oakland right away. It was like the longest, quietest, because you know I kept on waiting on them to call back and say she okay. While they're trying to process the attack, Nia and Tashaya's sister Latifah is fighting for her life at the hospital after getting stabbed too. Her family is left in shock, wondering who could have attacked them, and why? I'm just trying to figure out, like, do I know him from somewhere? Did we have an interaction with him in any way that before?

Starting point is 00:03:44 Because who is this? And why did he target us? I just felt like rage. This is the parents' worst nightmare. That's my baby girl in up there. I'm on justice for my daughter. Even though it happened in a crowded place, the man was able to get away,

Starting point is 00:04:01 right past security and police officers. No one knows who or where he is, but security cameras in and around the train station captured the attack, the moments leading up to it, and the man fleeing afterwards. And as investigators review the footage, there's a breakthrough.

Starting point is 00:04:16 In the video, the man can be seen inside a nearby parking structure, leaving his backpack behind before running out to the bus stop. Within hours of the attack, police find the bag. It has several personal items in it, allowing them to identify the man. 27-year-old John Lee Cowell. When investigators look at his records, they find he's a convicted felon out on parole.

Starting point is 00:04:37 In the past, he's been convicted of assault with a deadly weapon and armed robbery. There doesn't seem to be any connection between him and the Wilson family, but there's one more hope for details about the attack, Nia's sister Latifah, who's coming to at the hospital. I remember pulling up to Highland,

Starting point is 00:04:55 and from then on it was kind of a blur. And then I've seen my brother, Then my dad come in, and I'm like, where's Nia? And he hesitated. And my dad ended up telling me, and that's when I tried to get out the bed. And my brother was like, don't get up, don't get up. Latifah learns what happened to Nia, and with her killer on the loose, the heartbroken family is desperate for answers. Still recovering from her own injuries, Latifah tells them about the events earlier that night.

Starting point is 00:05:26 Just hours before the attack, Nia, Latifah, and Tishaya were visiting family. Their aunt Teresa had been diagnosed with a terminal illness, and the family wanted to have a celebration of life while she could still spend time with them. They went to the celebration, and afterwards, around 9 p.m., they got to the Concord Bart Station, heading back home to Oakland. As soon as the man saw them on the escalator to the platform, he targeted them. The girls waited about 15 minutes for the train. Security footage shows him keeping an eye on them the whole time.

Starting point is 00:05:56 time, planning his attack. When they walked towards the doors, the stranger put on a hoodie, grabbed his backpack, and followed them. He entered the train, sitting down near the sisters. For multiple stops, he watched them behind his sunglasses, but he didn't approach them. When the sisters reached MacArthur Station around 935, they moved to step off the train to transfer, and he followed. Tashaya got on the next train first. Then, a woman with a baby and a stroller started to back out through the doors, and Latifah and Nia. And Nia and Nia, and Nia. Mia waited on the platform. She don't see us because she's backing up.

Starting point is 00:06:30 But the baby like this, that Nia, Ania, hey baby. And me and Nia proceeded to walk onto the bar train. But all you hear is, Ania flung forward. And before I know I could turn back to me, and that's when you screamed my name. I see Nia, it was like she tricked.

Starting point is 00:06:51 I was in shock. I didn't know what to do at that moment. But all of a sudden, to shy of. saw blood, Nia was stabbed twice in the neck, and Latifah, who was standing next to her on the platform, was stabbed too before the attacker fled. The doors had closed and then they had reopened, and then I start screaming, trying to go find help. I believe an officer came to talk to me. I would just like, go up my sister, just make sure she's okay.

Starting point is 00:07:19 The woman with the stroller quickly threw her baby's blanket over Nia's neck, and Latifah pressed it against her, desperately trying to slow the bleeding. and save her sister. And all I could think of is like apply pressure. I'm not knowing if I'm hurting her. I'm not knowing if I'm making it. And then I turned around and the security guard just grabbed me. It was like, you've been stabbed too.

Starting point is 00:07:43 The security guard pulled her away, but Latifah didn't care about her own injuries. All she could think about in that moment was her sister. I still feel that guilt of I couldn't save her. She just yelled my name. Tifa, Tifa, Tifa. And what did you say to win those final moments as you were with her? I love her. And we're going to get through this.

Starting point is 00:08:06 And I said, I got you, baby, I got you. You're my baby sister. Latifah and Tishaya would do anything to catch the man who took their little sister away from them. Before her death, Nia had worried about the possibility that she or her loved ones might someday be attacked solely because of their race. She had told her family that if something like this ever happened to her, she wanted them to keep fighting to hold the attacker accountable. Now, facing Mia's fears coming true, her family refuses to let her killer get away with it. Nearly 12 hours after the attack, there's renewed hope of bringing the man to justice when police share his photo and information with the public. He is a violent felon who is currently on parole, and we currently have an active arrest warrant for his arrest for the murder.

Starting point is 00:08:53 of Nia. But when I tell you all my brothers, sisters, cousins, everybody was looking for him. News spreads quickly, and the residents of Oakland do all they can to help in the search. The man was a complete stranger to the whole family, and they worried that it was a racially motivated attack. While police recovered the footage and backpack within a few hours, it took them nearly 12 hours to release the man's information, and people feared that her killer wouldn't be caught if they didn't bring more attention to it themselves.

Starting point is 00:09:23 Posts about Nia spread across social media with the hashtag, Say Her Name, which started as a campaign to bring awareness to black women and girls who were victims of police brutality. As the movement grew, it was used to bring more attention to victims of anti-black violence, outrage builds, and around 1,000 members of the community gather at the train station for a vigil for Nia, pushing to get her story heard, honoring her and demanding justice. Even with so many eyes looking out for the man who killed Nia and tried to kill Latifah, it seems like he might have vanished. But during the vigil, police get an anonymous call that changes everything. The caller says they're on a barque train, and they recognize someone on the train with them as the man they've been looking for, John Cowell. The train is headed right towards MacArthur Station, the scene of the crime, and where

Starting point is 00:10:10 the vigil is being held. Police don't know if the man is aiming to hurt more people, but they race to stop him before he has a chance. They wait at MacArthur Station for the train to arrive, hoping to catch him by surprise. Then, the train gets there, and the doors open. Officers look everywhere, but they don't see him. However, at the nearby Pleasant Hill Station, around 20 minutes away, officers search the train for him too. This time, they find the man right in the middle of the doorway.

Starting point is 00:10:52 He doesn't put up a fight or try to run, and officers arrest him without incident. Less than 24 hours after the attack, the manhunt has come to an end. end. But while the man seems cooperative in this footage, he still has a plan to try to escape justice. In February of 2020, John Lee Cowell goes on trial. He has a history of mental illness, and he pleads not guilty by reason of insanity. When he testifies, he leans into it, saying he believed the sisters were aliens who kidnapped his grandmother. He just made a mockery out of it, like the things he was talking about up there because he wanted to play crazy. At one point, I intended to play the

Starting point is 00:11:30 the video to demonstrate that he knew what he was doing. He started screaming, yelling, cussing at me, telling me that I knew he was innocent and simply disrupting the courtroom. Even after the judge repeatedly warns him to stop, he continues his rant, cursing at the prosecutor, and gets removed from the courtroom. The security footage from the night of the stabbing makes it clear he had a plan to attack and escape, even having a backup outfit to change into afterwards. He targeted the sisters instead of anyone else at the station, and the prosecution considers charging Cowell with a hate crime as well. There were many women and people who entered into the BART platform. He did not focus on any of them. As soon as he saw three young African-American

Starting point is 00:12:12 women, he fixated on them, and every indication, every angle of the surveillance makes that very clear. While he was in custody, he went out of his way to engage in African-American deputy and proceeded to call her lots of racial slurs as well. There's no doubt in my mind. that the assault was racially motivated. You killed her because of her skin. You didn't kill her for anything else. But with how difficult it would be to prove it was a hate crime, District Attorney Butch Ford recommends seeking premeditated murder

Starting point is 00:12:39 and the special circumstance of lying in wait because he watched and followed them onto the train before attacking at the station. The family agrees, hoping to send him to jail for the rest of his life. And as Ford reviews the phone calls Cowell made while in custody, he makes a breakthrough. Mr. Cowell was happy to speak to his mental health caregivers because Mr. Cal had mental health issues. There's no disputing that.

Starting point is 00:13:02 But he also was forthcoming that he needed to stop taking his medication so that he could appear more crazy when the trial started. I think it was an absolute show. During the trial, he tries to play up the idea that he can't control himself and doesn't know what he's doing. But the judge isn't fooled by his antics, ruling that he was sane at the time of the attack. John Cowell is convicted of the murder of Nia Wilson, the attempted murder of her sister Latifah, and the special circumstance of lying in wait. He is sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Starting point is 00:13:33 With him behind bars for the rest of his life, Nia's family can finally start to move on with theirs. Spend the rest of us life in prison, so I really think justice or served. And I know Nia smiling down on her family, her sisters, her friends, all her loved ones, the community. I know she can rest in peace now. But while her family knows the man won't be able to hurt anyone again,

Starting point is 00:13:58 it's a bittersweet moment. Now that the trial is over, they struggle to move on, grieving the tragic loss and reality of life without Nia. It's still a shock and overwhelming. Parts of me don't want to believe what's going on and parts of me have to face reality. It was just something that I couldn't believe, you know. I couldn't sleep, couldn't eat.

Starting point is 00:14:20 I must run and had a stroke. I don't speak too clear. I have limited use of my right side. While it's a long healing journey, Nia's family members each have their own ways of finding the strength to keep going. My dogs keep me up. We have a husky.

Starting point is 00:14:37 She varies bored and she made me take her out for walks. She keeps me going. She's my therapy. Nia's sister still grapple with the guilt of surviving the attack, but with the help of therapy, meditation and loved ones, Tasha and Latifah are able to find themselves again. They know Nia would do anything to make them happy, and they see how her story sprints, impacting people across the country. The community comes together because of her, with hundreds of people

Starting point is 00:15:05 showing up to her funeral. She was dressed in golden. White had a white casket. They gave her a kid right, released deaths. It was beautiful. The name Nia, comes. from the Swahili word purpose. Nia's purpose lives on through others after her death. She was passionate about fighting for equal rights. She constantly put others ahead of herself, spreading kindness and compassion wherever she went. When I think of Nia, I think sunshine, big bright, beautiful smell. That was my baby.

Starting point is 00:15:41 Like, a sister's love can never be defined. Nia was very close with her friends and family, and she touched the lives of many near and far. Tributes continue to pour in across social media, with friends, strangers, and celebrities bringing attention to her story. NBA star Steph Curry hosts a high school basketball showcase, and he dedicates the game to Nia, raising over $20,000 for her family. Her school also honors her at what was supposed to be her graduation. The class of 2018 is not complete without one more graduate.

Starting point is 00:16:17 I'm very proud. This is her achievement that me and my daughter sat down and spoke up several times and it's so heartbreaking that she's not here to experience this for herself. Nia loved music and dancing and she dreamed of having her own dance studio one day. She also thought of becoming an EMT or paramedic or even working in criminal justice. She always wanted to help people and in 2019 her family created the Nia Wilson Foundation dedicated to providing resources such as mental health counseling, homeless outreach, self-defense classes,

Starting point is 00:16:50 and employment opportunities for young men and women. Nia's family thinks of her every day, working to honor her memory and continue her mission to make the world a better place. I always say, Nia, you make me a better person. I carry my daughter's name with a heavy weight. So whatever I do, I think about her because I can't feel her in all type of way.

Starting point is 00:17:12 I think Nia wants to be really. remember how she loved people, how she cared for people, her passion for people and rights, for everybody. Me and my daughters, and the rest of us, will see this true. We will make it, even though it's very hard. And it's something that we'll think about for the rest of our lives. We're going to make it.

Starting point is 00:17:35 We're going to make it.

Unseen - The Subway Stalker | The Terrifying Case of Nia Wilson | UNSEEN

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