Deaf woman tried to help BART train stabbing victim before he died

A deaf and oral woman, Sophie Humphrey, was in local news in the California Bay Area because she witnessed a fatal stabbing that happened in a BART train and tried to help the victim before he died. This happened on November 19.

I will summarize what happened and then show you video clips of an interview with her.

Sophie, who uses a wheelchair, was on an elevator at the San Leandro BART station between Oakland and Fremont. There was a man in the elevator with no shoes named Jermaine J. Brim. He was acting strange. Sophie said she felt nervous around him and when they got on the platform, as Brim went into a BART car, Sophie went into a different car.

SOPHIE HUMPHREY:

There were two cars. Brim went to one and I went to the other. I went inside and was sitting down. About five minutes later, Brim walked through the door towards my car. I was watching him.

ALEX:

Brim walked through the door to her car and looked at people’s shoes. Brim approached a man who was asleep. Brim tried to pry his shoes from him.

Another man, named Oliver “Tyrone” Williams, told Brim to stop trying to take his shoes.

Sophie said Brim did stop and left the car. But about three minutes later, he came back and told Tyrone to give his shoes to him, and when he said no, Brim started to throw punches.

Sophie said Brim then grabbed a knife and started to stab Tyrone in the neck five to 10 times. There was a lot of blood.

SOPHIE:

The attacker took a knife and started stabbing five to ten times in his neck. He was bleeding.

ALEX:

Several passengers ran away from the car. When the train reached the next station, Brim rushed out of the train. Sophie told a passenger to please go to the conductor and tell him to stop the train.

Sophie then got out of her wheelchair and went to Tyrone, who was bleeding. She tried to stop the bleeding by applying pressure to his neck. She had plastic gloves in her bag because she is a nursing student at Ohlone College.

SOPHIE:

I tried to stop the bleeding by applying pressure.

ALEX:

Sophie said she used a text relay service to call 911 and that it took a while for paramedics to arrive. When emergency crews arrived, Sophie moved to a different place to give comments to police. Paramedics later informed her that Tyrone died.

Brim was arrested a short time later after he allegedly tried to steal a car from a dealership and fought with a man there.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that authorities said prior to the train incident, Brim walked away from a hospital in San Leandro and was listed as a missing person at risk.

The knife belonged to Tyrone. Brim was able to get it somehow and allegedly used it to kill him.

Brim was charged with murder, carjacking, and attempted robbery and made his first court appearance in a courtroom in Dublin two weeks ago.

Tyrone was 49 years old and was honored by his friends and family as a hero and a father. His family started a GoFundMe for his family that has reached over $10,000 in donations.

Sophie said she met with Tyrone’s family and that they thanked her because Tyrone did not die alone.

SOPHIE:

His family told me, “Thank you.” They thanked me because the victim did not die alone.

ALEX:

She will be going to his funeral on Saturday.

I asked Sophie if she was scared. She said she thought about the victim and that she had no time to be scared. She also said she wanted to be sure to tell the police that Tyrone did not start the fight.

Sophie wants to be a nurse in the future. I asked her if she was scared to ride BART trains in the future. She no, that she still rides on it. Here is a video comment.

SOPHIE: I know that the world have evil people. But I know they are few as there are more people who are beautiful humans.

ALEX:

Thank you, Sophie, for your time.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/.../Witness-to-BART-killing...

https://www.sfchronicle.com/.../He-died-a-hero-Friends...

https://www.mercurynews.com/.../man-accused-of-fatal.../