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OAKLAND – Prosecutors will seek a life sentence against a parolee for murder and attempted murder in the attack on two young women in a subway station, said Wednesday the district attorney 39; Alameda. Malley said the authorities continue to investigate whether John Cowell, 27, was motivated by racial hatred when he killed Nia Wilson, 18, and injured his sister, Letifah Wilson, 26.
Women Are Black and White
Sitting with the family of victims, it's the worst time of their lives, says O & # 39; Malley.
"My heart is broken for them and also for our community in general," she said after the hearing. "It rocked the community, it shook us all."
Cowell did not plead during a brief hearing and his indictment was postponed until next month. The hearing room was filled with about two dozen members of Wilson's family. A woman cried after the end of the hearing.
The death of the young woman caused a vigil that then swelled in a crowd of about a thousand who walked into downtown Oakland across San Francisco Bay. view but court artist Vicki Ellen Behringer could see it. He dropped his eyes for most hearings, she said and at one point he had a slight smile. Cowell had a tattoo on her chest and a bandage on her forehead, she said.
Cowell's lawyer, George Arroyo, escaped the back door after the hearing and did not respond immediately to a request for comment. arrested Monday night in a Bay Area Rapid Transit train a dozen kilometers from the MacArthur station where women were attacked.
Authorities did not reveal the motive for the attack, but Cowell's family told KRON-TV statement that he suffered from mental illness "most of his life . " Nia's father, Ansar Muhammad, said Wednesday that he thought that mental illness was "an excuse" and that he felt his daughters were being attacked because they were black.
"I think it's an excuse, I hate to say that, but, you know, why would you choose two black girls?" Muhammad said that Nia was going to graduate "with the highest honors" from the Dewey Academy in December and that she was planning to join the army
"I should plan her degree The records indicate that Cowell recently served two years for second-degree robbery and was also convicted for a battery, being under the influence of a controlled substance and an assault. with a deadly weapon, reported the East Bay Times. 19659002] Cowell was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, said the family.
He was released from the psychiatric hospital of 39, state of Atascadero in May, but "there was no room for him." "The family said, adding that" the system failed in this case. "
" We had to get a restraining order at the same time for our own protection, he lived in the street without the trai appropriately, "the family id. "This is by no means an excuse for this senseless and vicious attack."
Cowell's mother, Anne Cowell, is serving a three-year sentence for setting fire to a transitional shelter in Santa Rosa, said the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office.
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