Sep 1, 2009 3:20 pm US/Pacific
Imprisoned Father Of Oscar Grant Suing BART
OAKLAND (CBS 5 / AP / BCN) ―
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Oscar Grant III
Family photo
The father of a man fatally shot by a Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer on New Year's Day is suing the transit agency.
Oscar Grant Jr., 44, who is in prison for murder, filed the civil rights lawsuit in San Francisco federal court, seeking unspecified damages.
Grant's 22-year-old son, Oscar Grant III, who worked as a butcher at a market in Oakland, was unarmed when he was shot in the back by former BART Officer Johannes Mehserle.
The shooting occured when Mehserle, 27, and other officers responded to reports that two groups of young men were fighting on a BART train at the Fruitvale station shortly after 2 a.m. on Jan. 1.
Mehserle is facing a murder charge for Grant's killing. His attorney said Mehserle meant to fire a stun gun when he instead fired a single shot from his pistol.
The father's attorney, Panos Lagos, said he hopes people look past his client's murder conviction to understand there was a close relationship between father and son.
"Even a murderer is entitled to consideration of his feelings and the loss of his only child," Lagos said.
The father, Oscar Grant Jr., is currently serving a life sentence at California State Prison-Solano in Vacaville for the first-degree murder of Anthony Epps in Oakland in 1985, according to the Alameda County district attorney's office.
Lagos said that although the father was imprisoned shortly after his son was born, the two knew each other from prison visits, phone calls and letters.
The victim's mother, Wanda Johnson, also filed a federal civil rights suit in March.
Dale Allen, a lawyer for BART, reacted Tuesday by saying, "Mr. Oscar Grant Jr. certainly has a right to bring his lawsuit."
But Allen added, "It remains our position that this was a tragic accident. We will certainly try to resolve the suits fairly at the appropriate time."
Lawyers in both lawsuits have asked the federal court to have the two cases handled by the same judge, U.S. District Judge Marilyn Patel of San Francisco.
In addition to BART, the civil lawsuits name Mehserle, BART Police Chief Gary Gee and officers Tony Pirone and Marysol Domenici as defendants.
In Mehserle's criminal case, an Alameda County Superior Court judge is scheduled to hold a hearing Friday on the officer's motion for dismissal of the murder charge against him.
(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. The Associated Press and Bay City News contributed to this report.)
BART Shooting Cell Phone Video (Graphic)
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