California prosecutors reopen case into officer-involved shooting of Black man in 2009
Prosecutors in California are reopening the investigation into the death of Oscar Grant, a Black man killed by Bay Area Rapid Transit officers in one of the first incidents of its kind to be captured on cellphone video.
The move comes nearly 10 years after 22-year-old Grant was fatally shot while lying face down on a platform at the Fruitvale Station in Oakland. BART officers Johannes Mehserle and Anthony Pirone responded to scene just after midnight on Jan. 1, 2009.
The following year, Mesherle, who fired the fatal shot, was found guilty on an involuntary manslaughter charge and Pirone was fired from the department. He told authorities he scuffled with Grant, but a report recently made public by the Meyers Nave law firm — which BART hired to run its internal investigation — suggests the officer had a much larger role in the incident.
The report was released Wednesday under a new California law for police transparency, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
“Pirone was, in large part, responsible for setting the events in motion that created a chaotic and tense situation on the platform, setting the stage, even if inadvertent, for the shooting of Oscar Grant,” said Kimberly Colwell and Jayne Williams, the attorneys who wrote the report dated July 31, 2009.
The authors specifically cited “repeated, unreasonable and unnecessary use of force,” his “manifest lack of veracity” and his use of a racial slur while arguing with Grant in recommending the officer’s firing.
The report additionally alleged there is video suggesting that Mehserle may have known he was drawing his firearm, not his Taser as he claimed during his trial testimony.
On Monday, Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley in a statement to CNN said she has “assigned a team of lawyers to look back into the circumstances that caused the death of Oscar Grant."
“We will evaluate the evidence and the law, including the applicable law at the time and the statute of limitations and make a determination," she added.
Grant’s family, after years of calling for additional action in the slaying, lauded the move to reopen the case but emphasized it was well overdue.
Wanda Johnson-Morris, Grant’s mother, said during a Monday news conference that Pirone was supposed to be charged after testifying in Mehserle’s trial. That never happened.
“Charge him for his actions that escalated instead of de-escalating the situation that escalated and caused the loss of my son’s life,” Johnson-Morris demanded.
“If all men are created equal, then we too should get the justice that we deserve.”
With News Wire Services
