Protesters unhappy with the St. Louis County grand jury’s decision not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson chained themselves to a Bay Area Rapid Transit train on Friday, forcing the BART system to shut down.
The protesters were part of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost told the Los Angeles Times.
About 20 protesters chained themselves to the handrail of a train at the West Oakland station. Train service was partially restored after about an hour after police removed the handrail from the train and arrested the demonstrators, according to NBC Bay Area.
BREAKING PHOTO: 30 black activists locked down to BART trains, shutting it down. #Ferguson2Oakland #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/f0F8PLKT1v
— joshua kahn russell (@joshkahnrussell) November 28, 2014
Man removed from train with post he was chained to. #police starting to wrap up this action. #KTVU pic.twitter.com/ur6iULP4c5
— John Sasaki (@JohnSasaki1) November 28, 2014
An organizer told NBC that protesters planned to shut down the train system for four hours, the same amount of time Michael Brown’s body laid on the ground after he was shot.
Protesters of the grand jury decision also temporarily shut down a St. Louis shopping mall on Friday.
In 2009, a BART officer shot and killed an unarmed black man named Oscar Grant. A San Francisco jury ruled in favor of the officer in a 2011 civil rights case for the shooting. His story was later made into the fictional film “Fruitvale Station.”