Family says Oakland murder suspect mentally ill
OAKLAND, Calif. — A paroled robber who allegedly stabbed to death an 18-year-old woman in an unprovoked attack at a California train station is mentally ill and failed to receive proper treatment, his family said Tuesday.
John Cowell, 27, was arrested Monday night on a Bay Area Rapid Transit train in the San Francisco Bay Area, about a dozen miles from the Oakland station where Nia Wilson was fatally attacked and her sister wounded Sunday night.
It wasn’t immediately known if Cowell had a lawyer. He was scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday and could be charged with first-degree murder.
Authorities haven’t released a motive for the attack but Cowell’s family told KRON-TV in a statement that he has suffered from mental illness “most of his life.”