Oscar Grant III, a 22-year-old unarmed Black man, was fatally shot by Bay Area Rapid Transit Officer Johannes Mehserle on the platform of the Fruitvale BART station in Oakland in the early hours of January 1, 2009. The Oscar Grant Fruitvale Station shooting, captured on bystanders’ cellphones and shared widely online, led to an involuntary manslaughter conviction, multimillion-dollar civil settlements, an overhaul of BART’s police department, and a change in California’s legal standard for police use of deadly force.
What Happened on the Platform
Just after midnight on New Year’s Day 2009, BART police responded to reports of a fight on a train returning from San Francisco’s New Year’s Eve celebrations. Officers pulled Grant and several others off the train and detained them on the Fruitvale platform.1Stanford University Libraries. Oscar Grant Grant was unarmed. Passengers on nearby trains and on the platform recorded the encounter.
Grant ended up face down on the platform with Officer Mehserle moving to restrain him. Mehserle drew his firearm and shot Grant once in the back at close range. Witnesses said Grant had been pleading, “Please, please, don’t tase me,” before the shot and cried out afterward, “You shot me! I got a four-year-old daughter!”2Amnesty International USA. Another Year, Another Unarmed Black Man Killed by Police Grant was pronounced dead at a hospital. Witnesses also said officers did not provide immediate first aid.
The Two Officers Involved
Two officers drew the most attention. Mehserle fired the shot. Officer Anthony Pirone, one of the first officers on the scene, was later found to have set the confrontation in motion.
An internal investigation by the law firm Meyers Nave concluded that Pirone was “in large part, responsible for setting the events in motion that created a chaotic and tense situation,” citing “repeated, unreasonable and unnecessary use of force,” a lack of truthfulness, and witness accounts that he used a racial slur.3NBC Bay Area. Internal Investigation Reveals Details of Oscar Grant’s Fruitvale Station Shooting The report found Pirone had punched Grant in the face and kneed him in the head while Grant did not fight back. Pirone was terminated from BART.4CNN. No Charges for Anthony Pirone in Oscar Grant Case
When BART released a more detailed public version of its report in May 2019, it concluded that deadly force “was not justified under the circumstances.” Enhanced video, the report said, suggested Mehserle intended to draw his firearm rather than his Taser, and he could be seen looking down at his hand on the gun holster as he drew it. The report also noted Mehserle had reported six use-of-force incidents in 2008, more than most other BART officers that year.5ABC7 News. BART Releases Report With New Details of Officers’ Roles in Fatal Shooting
Pirone was never criminally charged. In October 2020, Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley reopened the investigation into him at the Grant family’s request. On January 12, 2021, she declined to file charges, citing no evidence Pirone personally caused Grant’s death, the expired statute of limitations for involuntary manslaughter, and a lack of evidence he knew Mehserle intended to shoot. “We condemn Pirone’s conduct but we cannot charge him with murder or any other crime,” O’Malley said.4CNN. No Charges for Anthony Pirone in Oscar Grant Case6KQED. Oscar Grant’s Family Vows to Keep Fighting After DA Declines to File New Charges
The Criminal Case Against Johannes Mehserle
Mehserle resigned from BART shortly after the shooting. The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office charged him with murder on January 14, 2009.7BART. Response to Eric Holder Letter Because of intense pretrial publicity and threats of violence, the trial was moved from Oakland to Los Angeles.8Harvard Kennedy School Student Review. Race, Place, and Police: The 2009 Shooting of Oscar Grant The final jury did not include any Black members.
Mehserle’s defense was that he had intended to draw his Taser to subdue Grant but pulled his handgun by mistake. He testified that “the thought of my gun never came into the equation.”9KQED. BART Cop Johannes Mehserle Testifying in Oscar Grant Shooting Lawsuit Defense experts testified about “inattentional blindness,” high-stress human performance, and what they described as inadequate Taser training by BART.10FindLaw. People v. Mehserle
On July 8, 2010, the Los Angeles jury acquitted Mehserle of murder and voluntary manslaughter but convicted him of involuntary manslaughter. The jury also found true a firearm-use enhancement, but trial judge Robert Perry later dismissed the enhancement based on a finding that the shooting was unintentional. Mehserle was sentenced to two years in prison. He served eleven months and was released on June 13, 2011.10FindLaw. People v. Mehserle11NBC News. Ex-Transit Officer Released From Prison
Grant’s mother, Wanda Johnson, said after the verdict, “My son was murdered, and the law hasn’t held the officer accountable the way he should be.” Family attorney John Burris called it a “compromise verdict” and said “no true justice has been given.”12The Guardian. Oakland Riots After Oscar Grant Shooting Verdict
On June 8, 2012, the California Court of Appeal affirmed the conviction in People v. Mehserle. The court rejected Mehserle’s argument that the evidence was insufficient to support criminal negligence, writing that “a reasonable jury could conclude a reasonably prudent person could distinguish between the two weapons.” It noted Mehserle had to tug at his handgun three times to free it from the holster and failed to notice significant differences in weight, color, safety mechanisms, and holster location between the gun and the Taser. The court also upheld the dismissal of the firearm enhancement and the denial of probation.10FindLaw. People v. Mehserle13Cap Central. People v. Mehserle Case Summary
Protests After the Shooting and the Verdict
Cellphone videos of the shooting circulated within days and drew hundreds of protesters into downtown Oakland. Some demonstrators lay prone in front of police with their hands behind their backs, chanting “I am Oscar Grant” to replicate the position Grant was in when he was shot.8Harvard Kennedy School Student Review. Race, Place, and Police: The 2009 Shooting of Oscar Grant
Waves of protest followed each turn of the case. When prosecutors filed second-degree murder rather than first-degree, more than 1,000 people rallied and some smashed windows at a dozen businesses, forcing police to deploy tear gas. Thousands more gathered after Mehserle’s $3 million bail was set.8Harvard Kennedy School Student Review. Race, Place, and Police: The 2009 Shooting of Oscar Grant
The most intense unrest came after the July 2010 verdict. More than 1,000 people took to Oakland’s streets. Rioters smashed shop and car windows, looted stores, and set fire to trash bins pushed into intersections. At least 100 people were arrested. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger issued a plea for calm, and Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts attributed some of the violence to “anarchists coming from outside Oakland.”12The Guardian. Oakland Riots After Oscar Grant Shooting Verdict More protests followed Mehserle’s sentencing and his early release.
Civil Settlements With the Grant Family
Attorney John Burris filed a $50 million wrongful death and civil rights lawsuit against BART on behalf of Grant’s family in 2009.1Stanford University Libraries. Oscar Grant The case produced two settlements. In January 2010, BART agreed to pay $1.5 million to Grant’s daughter, Tatiana; Burris said the funds would be invested and paid out in installments until her 30th birthday.14FindLaw. BART System to Pay Daughter of Oscar Grant $1.5 Million In June 2011, after five settlement conferences over two and a half years, BART reached a $1.3 million settlement with Wanda Johnson.15BART. BART Reaches Settlement With Family of Oscar Grant BART also paid $175,000 to five of Grant’s friends detained on the platform.16ABC7 News. Jury Rules in Favor of Mehserle in Suit Filed by Oscar Grant’s Father None of the settlements included an admission of fault.17Oakland North. BART Strikes $1.3 Million Settlement With Oscar Grant’s Mother
Reforms at BART
The shooting forced a rewrite of BART’s police policies. A 2009 audit by the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives found that portions of the department’s policy manual dated to the 1970s. The department rebuilt its policies from scratch.18KALW. What’s Changed for BART Police After Oscar Grant’s Killing
BART created an independent civilian oversight structure: the Office of the Independent Police Auditor (OIPA) and the eleven-member BART Police Citizen Review Board, appointed by the BART Board of Directors. The OIPA investigates complaints, makes discipline recommendations, and has full access to police records; the police chief cannot unilaterally reject OIPA or Review Board findings. The OIPA can also investigate complaints when the complainant was not the direct victim.19BART. BART Police Reform
BART began requiring officers to wear body cameras in 2012 and added crisis intervention and racial bias training.20CBS News San Francisco. BART Police Institute Reforms in Decade Since Oscar Grant’s Death Updated use-of-force rules prohibit shooting at moving vehicles and ban the carotid control hold outright. Officers must give verbal warnings before using a firearm or Taser, attempt de-escalation first, and intervene and report when colleagues use excessive force. In August 2022, BART became the first law enforcement agency in the country to remove the term “excited delirium” from its policy manual and reports, a change recommended by the OIPA.19BART. BART Police Reform
California’s Deadly Force Standard
Grant’s family also pushed for change at the state level. His uncle, Cephus Johnson, was among the family members who lobbied for California’s Assembly Bill 392, signed into law in 2019. The law changed the standard for police use of deadly force from “reasonable” to “necessary in defense of human life.”21CalMatters. New CA Rules on Deadly Police Force Go to Governor’s Desk The immediate catalyst for the bill was the 2018 killing of Stephon Clark in Sacramento, but the Grant family’s presence at the Capitol linked the two cases.22Los Angeles Times. California Police Use of Force Bill
Wanda Johnson founded the Oscar Grant Foundation, which supports at-risk youth, grieving families, education, and hunger relief.23KQED. Nine Years After Oscar Grant’s Death, His Mother Continues to Speak Out She joined “Mothers of the Movement,” a group that includes the mothers of Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, and Tamir Rice, and spoke at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.24Wanda Johnson Speaks. Rev. Wanda Johnson She hosts an annual vigil at Fruitvale on New Year’s Day.
Film and Memorials
Ryan Coogler’s 2013 film Fruitvale Station, produced by Forest Whitaker, dramatized Grant’s last day. Michael B. Jordan played Grant. The film opens with the actual cellphone footage of the shooting before shifting to a fictionalized account of his final hours.25Broad Street Review. Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station
In February 2019, the BART Board voted unanimously to name a previously unnamed block adjacent to the station “Oscar Grant III Way.” That June, BART unveiled a mural honoring Grant on the station’s west exterior wall by local artist Senay “Refa One” Alkebulan, commissioned through BART’s Art in Transit Program at a cost of $38,000.26BART. Oscar Grant III Way and Mural Unveiled at Fruitvale Station Fifteen years after Grant’s belongings were taken as evidence, his cellphones were returned to his mother in late 2024.27KQED. Oscar Grant’s Cellphones Returned to His Mother 15 Years After Notorious Police Killing on BART Platform