Nia Wilson: It’s Been Over A Week Since 18-Year-Old Nia Wilson Was Brutally Murdered In An Oakland Train Station.

Nia Wilson was standing on a Bay Area Rapid Transit station platform in Oakland, California, Sunday night(July 22nd, 2018),  when she was stabbed to death in an apparently unprovoked attack.

By Monday night, John Cowell, 27, had been arrested in connection to the stabbing, but days later, officials still haven't said what prompted the attack, which a police chief compared to a "prison yard assault."
The random murder of Wilson -- a black teenager described by her family as loving and selfless -- prompted nearly 1,000 people to march in Oakland in a vigil for Wilson early this week, according to an estimate by the Oakland police.
Some have claimed the attack was racially motivated, because Cowell is white, though the BART police and the Alameda County District Attorney's Office have said they don't have evidence to back up that claim. Cowell's family released a statement that said he had been struggling with mental illness.
But Wilson's family members and others in the community feel the murder should be considered a hate crime, regardless of what caused the fatal stabbing.
"It is a hate crime," Malika Harris, Wilson's 25-year-old sister told CNN on Thursday. "That's how I feel, okay?"


She described her 18-year-old sister as "beautiful inside and out," and "always positive." She had been working at a clothing consignment store, but was thinking about joining the Army. Wilson, Harris said, was always willing to help people, no matter the circumstances.

Wilson's godfather, Daryle Allums, echoed that sentiment, and told CNN that Wilson had a "love for people."

"A lot of kids are selfish nowadays," he said. "She'd give her shirt off to a person who didn't have a shirt, you know?"

"My daughter was everything," Wilson's father, Ansar Muhammed, said, according to CNN affiliate KRON. "She was so beautiful, so inspirational, had dreams, you know?"

"All I want is justice for my daughters."