Manslaughter Verdict in Oakland Shooting Case

A white former transit officer was convicted of involuntary manslaughter Thursday in the shooting death of an unarmed black man on an Oakland train platform in a 2009 encounter that set off days of rioting in the city.

Prosecutors had wanted Johannes Mehserle convicted of murdering 22-year-old Oscar Grant, who was shot as he lay face-down.

Mehserle was placed in handcuffs and taken away after the verdict. He turned to his family and mouthed, "I love you, guys." His parents wept when the verdict was read.

Grant's mother, Wanda Johnson, stared at the jurors and appeared upset.

One woman juror wiped tears with a tissue when the panel was polled on its decision.

On the east side of San Francisco Bay, police in riot gear were deployed on the streets of Oakland.

A crowd near Oakland City Hall moaned and cursed when they heard the verdict. A dozen people gathered in a semi-circle to pray.

"It's not real, it's not real. Where's the justice? He was killed in cold blood," said Amber Royal, 23, of Oakland.

The jury had a choice between murder and lesser charges of voluntary and involuntary manslaughter.

The panel included eight women and four men. None listed their race as black. Seven said they were white, three were Latino, and one was Asian-Pacific. One declined to state their race.

Involuntary manslaughter carries a sentence of two to four years. The next hearing was set for Aug. 6.

At least five bystanders videotaped the New Year's Day incident in what was among the most racially polarizing cases in California since four Los Angeles officers were acquitted in 1992 in the beating of Rodney King.

The case was a rare instance in which a police officer stood trial for an on-duty killing and that was captured on video from so many different angles.

The verdict followed a three-week trial in which prosecutors played videos by bystanders, and witnesses recounted hearing the frightening gunshot that killed Grant.

Mehserle, 28, testified that he struggled with Grant and saw him digging in his pocket as officers responded to reports of a fight at a train station. Fearing Grant may have a weapon, Mehserle said he decided to shock Grant with his Taser but pulled his .40-caliber handgun instead.

Alameda County Deputy District Attorney David Stein said in his closing argument that Mehserle let his emotions get the better of him and intended to shoot Grant with the handgun without justification.

One of Grant's friends, Jackie Bryson, testified that Mehserle said "(expletive) this" before firing the fatal shot.

Defense attorney Michael Rains contended the shooting was a tragic accident. Mehserle had no motive to shoot Grant, even though he was resisting arrest, the lawyer argued.

Rains also said Mehserle told a colleague before the shooting: "Tony, Tony, Tony, I can't get his hands. I'm going to tase him."

Mehserle pleaded not guilty to murder and resigned from the Bay Area Rapid Transit agency after the shooting.

Fallout from the shooting was swift in Oakland after the videos were shown on television and the Internet. The shooting and the nearly two weeks it took to arrest Mehserle sent the city into a tailspin of violence as downtown businesses were damaged, cars were set ablaze and clashes erupted between protesters and police.

Grant had recently been released from jail after being sentenced to 16 months for a gun possession charge filed after he ran from police and was subdued by an officer with a stun gun.

Grant has become a martyr of sorts in a city where more than a third of residents are black. His omnipresent image on buildings and storefront windows arguably rivals that of slain hometown rapper Tupac Shakur.

Grant's family and friends filed multimillion dollar lawsuits against the transit agency. Only the mother of Grant's daughter has reached a settlement.

[TX11]

THAT WAS SOME STRAIGHT BS...

[triptechb]

why does it always have to be about race? how about we look at the fact that a mentally unstable man was given a badge and a gun. he deserves a murder charge, but not because he was a white man killing a black man, but because he is a danger to our society. i am not saying what he did was not racially motivated, but the more we focus on that being the issue the more we are divided and distracted from the real issue- one man MURDERED another and wants to play it off as an accident.

[infantryman1968]

by brianbwb2011 July 9, 2010 12:30 PM EDT
No, the Feds have a duty to look into it to determine whether or not it was, as it appears, a blatant violation of an American's civil rights by an organ of the government.

It is the federal governments responsibility to ensure the protection of civil rights for all Americans.

Any less, and the Fed is not doing it's job.

LOL!

Actually they are. Obama is sending a team out there as we speak.

[Spyder222]

Eric Holder wants to talk about race. Okay, black panthers threaten to kill white voters at the polls in Philadelphia, no problem. Arizona citizens don't like drug dealers running across their ranches shooting, let's sue Arizona. It must be all racism. The department of Justice wants the states to go bankrupt spending billions of dollars on the criminally insane and convicted felons. A white cop shoots an unarmed black guy who was fighting police, the jury calls it manslaughter, not good enough for Mr. Holder. We wanted change, so we got a race baiting punk running the Dept of Justice.

[infantryman1968]

by brianbwb2011 July 9, 2010 12:38 PM EDT
Okk. Mr. 15 guns, 4 of them pistols, do you fire without sighting along the weapon at your target?

If you sight along your weapon, you mean to say you cannot tell by sight, the difference between a gun and a Taser?

Or perhaps with your experience, sighting a target is not necessary, just go Matt Dillon on the victim, and shoot from the hip, right?

In fact, you imply that you also cannot tell the difference between the heft and balance of a taser, and a pistol.

And the most obvious point, that the victim was lying face down and handcuffed, already subdued, and therefore required no extra administration of force, either Taser, or pistol.

Yes, it was entirely intentional either with Taser or pistol, and it was also totally unnecessary.


LOL!

Actually, at extreme close range you fire off of the front site post with both eyes open. Its called Reflexive Fire. Works just as well with an M-4 or M-9.

[infantryman1968]

by brianbwb2011 July 9, 2010 12:25 PM EDT
I just love it when a pwned bagger, having exhausted their flawed logic, resorts to pulling incorrect and irrelevant assumptions from their nether orifice, and you bite on to it as if it was truth.

I think you like that flavor.

LOL!


So your really AlanW21126p and you are debating yourself?

Man you really are an Obamanite!

[6591Hou]

A trial was held, the accused was tried before a jury of his peers, a conviction was handed down....

Was it the conviction some expected and wanted? No, but it was a conviction and it went through the system the way it was supposed to.

Now the federal government wants to look into it because they're being 'sensitive' to the people who didn't feel that enough punishment was meted out by the system.

[Overruled1]

before a jury of his peers

No way was a black man going to be on that jury though right?

Every black man that took the stand was rejected, and many asked questions if they ever had encounters with police...

Others non black were simply asked if anyone knows police or have family working as police.....

It was a trial, but not a balanced jury.

[AlanW21126p]

Did you see the video? I saw it 4 times. No way was it murder. Look at the cop after he shoots the guy. His face and body language clearly show he was shocked that he had a gun in his hand. He clearly had a brain fa*rt and just grabbed the wrong weapon.

BTW, I have 15 guns. 4 of them pistols. And heavy 20+ years of handgun experience.

Was the cop sloppy? yes. Was he badly trained? Perhaps? Was he over-stressed? Likely? Did he make a horrible mistake? Yes. Did he mean to shoot the man in the back with a gun? No way.

[Overruled1]

How do you expect him to look like on video? Is he supposed to turn into freddy kruger?
Let's put it this way, how would you feel once you realized you killed a man for the first time, accident or not?
It's not how he appeared after the fact anyhow. What matters is the plain fact the police that night were abusive. The jury didn't get to hear that the police involved all were fired for conspiracy. They doctored their reports.
Mehserle wasn't the only one with blood on their hands that new years day 2009 at Fruitvale BART.

[infantryman1968]

by brianbwb2011 July 9, 2010 11:06 AM EDT
Almost as objectionable as this,

A year after sentencing, at the Redneck Bar and Grill,

Murdering cop parolee's drinking buddy: Well lookee who's here! Howdy Mehserle, glad yer back with us, how was the slam?

Murdering cop parolee: Oh it was nuthin' the guards had my back, and they even brought me donuts. Real easy.

Murdering cop parolee's drinking buddy: So what'cha gonna do?

Murdering cop parolee: Well I think I'll move to Montana, or Aryanzona, there's a few n-words I can kill there, an' nobody will even ask questions.

Murdering cop parolee's drinking buddy: Ain't it funny, ya kilt that n-word, and got off light by claimin' you was only gonna torture him. Man, I gotta try that one, gimme your lawyer's name.

Murdering cop parolee: yeah, but I sure wish this was back in Daddy's day, we could kill as many n-words as we wanted, and wouldn't even get desk duty. We'd be heroes.

Murdering cop parolee's drinking buddy: Well, you're a hero to all the guys down at the station, how you set for cash?

Murdering cop parolee: Oh I'm doin' fine, I got money from bagger groups, and my bills have been taken care of, and I even got a book deal in the works. Hey, where ya goin?

Murdering cop parolee's drinking buddy: To git mah Taser, and my sidearm, I got work to do

LOL!

Your really are no better than the people you accuse are you?

So much for the revolution eh?

[AlanW21126p]

Been watching hyper-lib BrianBWB on these boards for a year. Everything he does is liberal, Anti-american, pro-race-baiting, Marxist, pro-tax, anti-white, etc.

Brian is one sick puppy. You'd all be smart to just yawn when he posts his absurd(and boringly long) cr*p.

[infantryman1968]

I know, its really sad. The icing on the cake is he doesent even live here!

I think that he thought there was going to be some big revolution with Obama out front of it. Thats not happening now so he's got nothing else to hang on too.

[AlanW21126p]

Brian, it's impossible to "refute" the postings of a ranting and pathological liar, since said liar doesnt even recognize the fact that he is lying. So, attempts to "refute" specimens such as yourself simply amount to futility and wasted time. Take your meds and stay in the UK. Your dementia is not welcome in the USA.

[infantryman1968]

by brianbwb2011 July 9, 2010 10:50 AM EDT

Oh look, another tea-klux bagger supporter of police racism, attempting to pretend that an involuntary manslaughter conviction, which means the murderer will be back on the streets within a year, is justice.

LOL!

brianbwb2011

Anyone with half a brain knows that Cop was FU. However, the fact still remains that anyone who has read your posts the past couple of years knows that if the victim where white, you would not be wasting your time defending him.

Besides, did you really expect Justice from such a model State like California? Come on..........