(01-14) 00:13 PST Oakland — The BART police officer who fatally shot an unarmed man on an Oakland train platform and then refused to explain his actions to investigators was arrested Tuesday in Nevada on suspicion of murder, authorities said.
Johannes Mehserle, 27, of Lafayette was taken into custody in Douglas County, Nev., said Deputy Steve Velez of the Douglas County sheriff’s office. The arrest was also confirmed by David Chai, chief of staff to Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums.
Mehserle was arrested in the New Year’s Day shooting of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old supermarket worker from Hayward who was lying facedown after being pulled off a BART train by police investigating a fight. An Alameda County judge signed an arrest warrant alleging murder, and Mehserle surrendered without incident, authorities said.
Kill somebody, interfere with the investigation, and flee to Nevada… this is totally acceptable behavior if you’re a former “cop.”
Wait. What?!
At this point, I’m not about to grandstand about this guy being guilty of murder or anything… that’s what the trial is for. However, I will say that he killed Oscar Grant, and it would be hard to convince me that there was reason for it… it would be hard to convince me that he should have even pulled his gun. So: murder? Well, that’s what the trial is for.
Maybe it’s a little bit of, “sorry son. You’ve got to go.” …in which case, the Grim Reaper walks among us with a fierce, strange intensity and acts with alarmingly dispassionate fury. Can we call this murder? For the third time: that’s what the trial is for.
A protest over the fatal shooting of a young man by a BART police afficer went violent, as demonstrators set a bumpster on fire and attacked a police car. Joe Vasquez and Phil Matier report.
This situation is intense, but I would stop short of calling these riots “violent,” in the sense of the term that means causing physical harm, with the possible exception of police shooting rioters with tear gas and projectiles. In the sense in which violent means “extreme” – well – there were some intense moments depicted in the video above.
In case you haven’t been following the situation, my brief synopsis is this: just after midnight on new years day, BART police in Oakland, CA executed a handcuffed man (Oscar Grant), while an onlooker videoed the scene with a cellphone camera.
At approximately 2:00 AM PST, BART Police officers responded to a call that two groups of passengers on board were involved in an altercation as the train departed from the West Oakland Station. [3]
Upon arrival at the Fruitvale station, BART Police officers removed Grant and the other men onto the platform. While some of the men were handcuffed, Grant was not. In at least two of the videos he is shown raising his hands, appearing to plead with police while seated against the platform wall. [4]
Moments later, Mehserle and another BART officer positioned Grant him face-down on the ground. An officer can be seen pinning Grant’s upper body to the ground while Mehserle was positioned on his back. A struggle ensued, and seconds later Mehserle began tugging at his gun. He then stood up, unholstered his gun and fired a shot into Grant’s back at point-blank range.
Mehserle then looked up at another officer, appearing surprised. He raised his hand to his face and lowered it, as if in shock at what he had done.
The bullet entered Grant’s back, exited through his front side and ricocheted off the concrete floor of the platform, finally puncturing Grant’s lung. Grant died seven hours later at Highland Hospital from his gunshot wounds.
Grant’s funeral was held at the Palma Ceia Baptist Church in Hayward on January 7, 2009.[5]
Rather than deal with the consequences, “officer” Johannes Mehserle has resigned. According to the San Jose Mercury News:
The BART police officer under investigation for the fatal New Year’s Day shooting of an unarmed man quit his job Wednesday rather than speak with investigators, an official said.
Former officer Johannes Mehserle, 27, has given no comment to BART investigators since the incident in which cell phone videos appeared to capture Mehserle shooting Oscar Grant III as Grant lay facedown on the ground at the Fruitvale station, BART spokesman Linton Johnson said Wednesday.
“We had a meeting scheduled for him to talk, and his attorney and a union rep came in his place and dropped off a letter of resignation instead,” Johnson said. “It’s interesting, because he was supposed to be talking for the administrative part of our investigation, which is privileged information and couldn’t have been used in any criminal investigation anyway.”
He should probably run for his life at this point, because Mehserle has demonstrated a sequence of cowardly, unlawful actions, and it seems like the popular opinion is currently against him.
A brief, narrated clip of the execution video follows. If you don’t want to see this, don’t click it, but like all cellphone videos, it is grainy and difficult to see the crime happening.
If anyone has an image of Mehserle, please send RTFA the tip. We now know the identity of the man who was executed, but we do not yet know the visual identity of the public servant who served as executioner.
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