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Police officer charged after commuters watch young father 'being shot'
January 15, 2009 - 9:23AM
A former police officer accused of shooting an unarmed man to death on the San Francisco subway in the United States has been charged with murder.
Johannes Mehserle, a former Bay Area Rapid Transit agency police officer, was arrested on Tuesday evening at a home near Lake Tahoe, Nevada.
He is being held over the New Year's Day shooting death of Oscar Grant, who was lying on the ground after being pulled off a San Francisco area train by police investigating reports of fighting.
Mehserle resigned from the rapid transit unit on January 7, hours before a protest in Oakland about the shooting turned violent and resulted in more than 100 arrests.
Mehserle is white and Grant was black. The shooting was recorded by passengers using mobile phones and the video has been widely circulated on the internet and television.
Alameda County district attorney Tom Orloff said on Wednesday at a news conference in Oakland that Mehserle was charged with murder because evidence showed Grant was the victim of an intentional killing.
Mr Orloff said he would not speculate on whether the charge would end up being first-degree murder or second-degree murder.
"At this point, what I feel the evidence indicates, is an unlawful killing done by an intentional act and from the evidence we have there's nothing that would mitigate that to something lower than a murder," he said.
Grant's family has sued the rapid transit unit for $US25 million ($38 million). A lawyer representing the family praised authorities for arresting Mehserle and called it "a very first step" of what was expected to be a long process.
Mehserle had refused to talk to Bay Area Regional Transit investigators before resigning last week.
"I want to know why he did it," said BART board member Carole Ward Allen. "We've heard from everybody else but him. While I can't speak for the entire BART board, we want to make this process as transparent as possible."
State Attorney General Jerry Brown assigned a prosecutor to monitor the case, and the US Department of Justice sent mediators to help avert additional violent demonstrations.
AFP/AP
January 15, 2009 - 9:23AM
A former police officer accused of shooting an unarmed man to death on the San Francisco subway in the United States has been charged with murder.
Johannes Mehserle, a former Bay Area Rapid Transit agency police officer, was arrested on Tuesday evening at a home near Lake Tahoe, Nevada.
He is being held over the New Year's Day shooting death of Oscar Grant, who was lying on the ground after being pulled off a San Francisco area train by police investigating reports of fighting.
Mehserle resigned from the rapid transit unit on January 7, hours before a protest in Oakland about the shooting turned violent and resulted in more than 100 arrests.
Mehserle is white and Grant was black. The shooting was recorded by passengers using mobile phones and the video has been widely circulated on the internet and television.
Alameda County district attorney Tom Orloff said on Wednesday at a news conference in Oakland that Mehserle was charged with murder because evidence showed Grant was the victim of an intentional killing.
Mr Orloff said he would not speculate on whether the charge would end up being first-degree murder or second-degree murder.
"At this point, what I feel the evidence indicates, is an unlawful killing done by an intentional act and from the evidence we have there's nothing that would mitigate that to something lower than a murder," he said.
Grant's family has sued the rapid transit unit for $US25 million ($38 million). A lawyer representing the family praised authorities for arresting Mehserle and called it "a very first step" of what was expected to be a long process.
Mehserle had refused to talk to Bay Area Regional Transit investigators before resigning last week.
"I want to know why he did it," said BART board member Carole Ward Allen. "We've heard from everybody else but him. While I can't speak for the entire BART board, we want to make this process as transparent as possible."
State Attorney General Jerry Brown assigned a prosecutor to monitor the case, and the US Department of Justice sent mediators to help avert additional violent demonstrations.
AFP/AP
