Feds file drug charge against man arrested after being tased by Oakland BART cop

Federal drug charges have been filed against a man arrested after a cop allegedly saw him with drugs out in the open.

OAKLAND — A man arrested on suspicion of gun and drug possession in September, after a BART officer chased him through the train and used a stun gun on him, is now facing drug charges that carry a minimum of five years in federal prison.

Malcolm M. Cummings, 26, was charged in late November with possessing more than two ounces of a “mixture containing methamphetamine,” court records show. The charge carries a maximum of 40 years in prison and a minimum five-year term.

A recently-unsealed complaint says that Cummings was found with a significant amount of meth and heroin, as well as a pistol and ammunition, after a scuffle with a BART officer that resulted in Cummings’ arrest.

It occurred on an Oakland train bound for Dublin/Pleasanton, according to the complaint. Around 9:30 a.m. on Sept. 26, BART Ofc. DeJuan Johnson allegedly caught Cummings red-handed.

“Officer Johnson observed Cummings in possession of several clear individually wrapped baggies of suspected heroin and suspected methamphetamine located to the immediate left of Cummings, on Cummings’ lap, and within Cummings’ fingertips,” the complaint says.

Johnson told Cummings he knew he had drugs, and Cummings replied, “sorry,” the complaint says. As the train pulled up to the Coliseum station, Johnson allegedly told Cummings to put his hands behind his back, and Cummings responded by exiting the train and running away.

The complaint says Cummings shoved Johnson and “struggled and fought” with him. Federal prosecutors included grainy screenshots of Johnson’s body camera, as fell as a similarly-pixilated security video screenshot, in the criminal complaint.

Cummings was arrested on suspicion of drug and gun possession, as well as resisting arrest and a probation violation, according to public records. Cummings waived his right to a speedy trial at a court hearing last week, records show.