California DA reopens investigation into transit cop who shot and killed a black man in 2009 after his family said his death 'mirrors George Floyd's' because officers kneeled on his neck
A Northern California prosecutor announced Monday that she will reopen an investigation into the killing of a black man at a train station by a transit officer 11 years ago.
Oscar Grant, 22, was fatally shot in the back by Bay Area Rapid Transit Officer Johannes Mehserle while on the floor of a train station on New Year's Day in 2009.
The fatal shooting was one of the first police shootings caught on video by bystanders and sparked protests and contributed to a national conversation about racism and police violence, much like the ongoing protests since the death of George Floyd.
Mehserle was charged with murder, but a Los Angeles County jury found him guilty only of involuntary manslaughter and he served 11 months.
Mehserle claimed he mistakenly grabbed his gun instead of his Taser.
Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley's announcement came just hours after Grant's family held a news conference at the train station asking her to investigate the role of another officer in Grant's death, the Mercury News of San Jose reported.
The family wants charges to be filed against former officer Anthony Pirone, who pinned Grant down with a knee to his neck in a manner similar to that used in the death of Floyd, who died in police custody in Minneapolis.
'We have listened closely to the requests of the family of Oscar Grant,' O'Malley said in a statement.
Grant, 22, was fatally shot in the back by Bay Area Rapid Transit Officer Johannes Mehserle (left and right) while on the floor of a train station on New Year's Day in 2009
The family wants charges to be filed against former officer Anthony Pirone, who pinned Grant down with a knee to his neck in a manner similar to that used in the death of George Floyd, who died in police custody in Minneapolis
A 2009 BART police internal investigation report, released last year after a public records request, concluded that Pirone contributed significantly to Grant's shooting, the newspaper 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 authored the report dated July 31, 2009.
Colwell and Williams cited Pirone's '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.
Pirone was fired for his role and his statements that contradicted video surveillance and other officers' and witnesses' accounts of that night.
The report found that he disregarded his training and rushed through the initial investigation, starting a 'cascade of events that ultimately led to the shooting of Grant'.
'Justice delayed is justice denied,' said Grant's mother, Wanda Johnson. 'We should not have to wait another 11 years. ... We were told then that it should happen, and it should happen now.'
The Associated Press could not immediately reach Pirone. A phone listing for him was disconnected.
According to the same report, videos showed Mehserle may have known he was drawing his firearm, not his Taser, before shooting Grant.
'Despite the inability to interview Officer Mehserle, the conclusion can be made from a close viewing of the enhanced video that he was intending to pull his firearm and not his Taser,' the report says.
The reported noted that Mehserle repeatedly reached for his gun 'and on the final occasion can be seen looking back at his hand on the gun/holster to watch the gun come out'.
O'Malley 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 make a determination.'
'Justice delayed is justice denied,' said Grant's mother, Wanda Johnson (pictured on Monday). 'We should not have to wait another 11 years. ... We were told then that it should happen, and it should happen now'
A woman leaves a sign at a street-side memorial to shooting victim Oscar Grant in Oakland, California, on October 5, 2010
The transit agency later agreed to pay Grant's daughter $5.1million in a settlement.
The reinvestigation comes just months after Johnson, like many other black mothers whose sons and daughters have been killed at the hands of police, watched in horror as Floyd died under the knee of Minneapolis officer, Derek Chauvin, on May 25.
'I began to shake. I was up for two days, just crying,' Johnson said in June. 'Just looking at that video opened such a wound in me that has not completely closed.'
The video of Floyd's killing is one in a litany. Before it, 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery's fatal shooting was also captured on camera, and no one was charged until public pressure mounted after the video made its rounds on the internet.
And just after Arbery, it was Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old EMT who was shot dead by police after they entered her home on March 13.
Since then, many watched an officer fatally shoot 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks in the back following a struggle in the parking lot of a Wendy's restaurant in Atlanta.
