The Militant (logo)  

Vol. 73/No. 5      February 9, 2009

 
Video: a second Bay Area
cop hit youth before killing
 
BY ERIC SIMPSON  
OAKLAND, California, January 28—New video has surfaced showing that a second Bay Area Rapid Transit cop punched 22-year-old Oscar Grant III in the face not long before he was thrown face down on a station platform. Grant, an apprentice butcher and African American, was then fatally shot in the back by another cop, Johannes Mehserle.

Grant’s killing was captured on cell phone videos taken by other passengers. When released to the press and posted on the internet, the footage caused widespread outrage and demands that Mehserle be brought to justice. He resigned from the police force and fled to a friend’s home near Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Mehserle’s attorney said the cop and his family had received numerous death threats, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

After two weeks of protests, including several street demonstrations, the Oakland district attorney was forced to issue a warrant for Mehserle’s arrest. The cop was returned to Oakland January 14 where he was arraigned, charged with murder, and jailed. A hearing on whether to grant bail is scheduled for January 30.

In the new video shown on KTVU-TV a second cop, identified as Tony Pirone, is seen hitting Grant in the face and knocking him down. According to the TV station, Pirone is the cop kneeling on Grant’s neck when Mehserle shoots him in the back. Pirone has been on paid leave since the killing, but not under investigation. After the new footage was released, BART general manager Dorothy Dugger promised an internal affairs investigation.

The day after Mehserle was arrested, 1,500 demonstrators in downtown Oakland demanded that all the cops involved be charged as accessories. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, police officials cannot remember the last time a cop was charged with murder for an on-duty incident.

After Grant’s killing Kenneth Carrethers came forward to say he was beaten up by Mehserle on November 15 for making disparaging remarks about police to another train passenger. He was charged with resisting arrest coming out of the incident, which sent him to the hospital.

One of Mehserle’s lawyers, Christopher Miller, is the lead counsel for the California Peace Officers Legal Services program. Mehserle also hired attorney Michael Rains, well known in the area for defending cops and getting them off. The cop’s legal fees are being paid by the police “union.”  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home