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OAKLAND (CBS 5 / AP / BCN) ― The former Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer who shot and killed an unarmed man remained jailed Friday evening, hours after a judge set a $3 million bail, according to the Alameda County Sheriff's Office.
 
Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums had errouneously released a statement to the media late Friday afternoon claiming 27-year-old Johannes Mehserle had posted bail and was released. The claim set off yet another series of protests in the streets of Oakland.

Oakland police say nine people were arrested for failing to disperse. A police vehicle was damaged, and officers at one point deployed tear gas.

But there were no reports of injuries or vandalism to storefronts.

Sheriff's Sgt. J.D. Nelson told CBS 5 that Dellums was wrong and the ex-officer remained in his cell at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, where he has been held since surrendering to authorities Jan. 14.

Earlier Friday in urging a judge to grant bail, the lawyer for Mehserle said that his client may have mistakenly pulled his service pistol instead of a stun gun.

"The bulk of the discovery, including witness and officer statements, seem to indicate that this young officer, who carried a taser for only a few shifts prior to this event, may have mistakenly deployed his service pistol rather than his taser, thus negating any criminal intent," attorney Michael Rains wrote in court documents filed prior to the bail hearing.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Morris Jacobson said he set a high bail at $3 million because he considered Mehserle a flight risk. Jacobson noted that the former officer fled to Nevada during the initial investigation.

He said it also appeared that Mehserle gave an "inconsistent story" about the shooting.

Mehserle has pleaded not guilty to one count of murder in the death of 22-year-old Oscar Grant III of Hayward, who was killed early New Year's Day. 

Amateur videos of the incident show the officer shooting Grant as he was lying facedown on a train platform at BART's Fruitvale station in Oakland.

Grant died of a gunshot wound to his torso after police responded to reports that there had been a fight on a train.

Assistant District Attorney John Creighton argued at Friday's hourlong hearing that the videos of the shooting showed the officer losing his control and using lethal force.

Mehserle resigned the week after the highly-publicized shooting incident, which provoked widespread outrage and protests

In the court filing Friday, Rains said witness accounts indicated that Mehserle meant to draw his Taser, but instead pulled his pistol. As a result, Rains said Mehserle did not act with malice when he fired.

The court documents contained statements from and reports by several officers who were on the platform with Mehserle at the time of the shooting. The officers who had just pulled several men, including Grant, from a train after the reports of fighting described the scene as chaotic and the suspects as "combative in their verbiage and body language," the documents said.

As Grant lay on the ground, Mehserle told him to stop resisting and put his hands behind his back, according to a statement by Officer Tony Pirone, who was standing by the man's head. Several officers at the scene said Grant was refusing to take his arms out from under him.

Then, according to Pirone, Mehserle said: "I'm going to taze him, I'm going to taze him. I can't get his arms. He won't give me his arms. His hands are going for his waistband."

Mehserle then told Pirone to move, before firing the shot.

Pirone said he didn't know if Grant was armed at the time, but said Mehserle told him he had believed Grant may have been.

"Tony, I thought he was going for a gun," Mehserle said, according to Pirone's statement. 

In issuing his bail ruling though, Jacobson said it appeared to him that Mehserle wanted to "make up a story to avoid the consequences of his actions."

At the packed bail hearing, Jacobson pointed out that while Mehserle told fellow BART police officers that he was going to use a Taser on Grant, after the shooting he told a colleague, "I thought he had a gun."

The judge said Mehserle's statements "seem to be inconsistent" because if Mehserle truly believed that Grant had a gun then Mehserle would have been justified to pull out his gun and use deadly force and wouldn't have needed to use his Taser.

Jacobson said that because he believes Mehserle hasn't been totally forthcoming about his actions he has "a lack of trust at promises that he will appear for future court hearings."

The judge scheduled the former officer to be back in court March 23 for a preliminary hearing.

Before Jacobson ruled on Mehserle's bail motion, the former officer's attorney called the shooting "a tragic accident" but reiterated the claim made in his court filing — that Mehserle only intended to use his Taser.

Rains said he felt Mehserle should only be charged with involuntary manslaughter and consequently his bail should only be $30,000, which is the standard bail for that lesser charge.

While rejecting a low bail amount, the judge noentheless ruled Mehserle was entitled to bail because he doesn't think there is clear and convincing evidence that there's a substantial likelihood that releasing the former officer from custody would result in great bodily injury to others.

Jacobson said no-bail status normally is reserved only for defendants facing the death penalty or other extremely serious crimes such as treason.

Meantime, as Mehserle appeared for Friday's bail hearing, a Grant family spokesman announced a trust fund had been set up for Grant's 4-year-old daughter.

Pastor Dion Evans said outside the Renee C. Davidson Courthouse in Oakland that the Grant family was "extremely appreciative to the community and this country for the enormous amount of support and its strong involvement with us in this time of crisis with the BART Police Department."

"We have set up a trust fund for Tatiana so that she will have the opportunity to go to college despite the loss of her father," Evans said.

He indicated all donations could be made to the Tatiana Grant Trust Fund, account number 3879027641, Wells Fargo Bank, 950 Southland Drive, Hayward, Calif., 94545.

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