Local News

OAKLAND (CBS 5 / AP / BCN) ― About 100 protesters were back on the streets Thursday night in Oakland, protesting the fatal shooting of an unarmed man by a Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer.

Police in riot gear shut down a main thoroughfare in Oakland after protesters tried to stop cars and threw trash cans into the street.

But the protests were calmer than the previous night when at least 120 people were arrested following a violent rampage that damaged dozens of businesses and numerous cars.

The unruly protesters, responding to the Jan. 1 fatal shooting of 22-year-old Oscar Grant III, smashed store windows, burned cars, and vandalized an Oakland police cruiser as they made their way throughout the downtown area.

Grant's mother, Wanda Johnson, beseeched residents to avoid further violence and not tarnish the image of her son.

"You're hurting people who have nothing to do with the situation. You're vandalizing their property, hurting their cars and breaking their windows. Please just stop it, please," Johnson said at a Thursday afternoon news conference.

Grant's aunt, Charmine Jones-Johnson, said she has her own business and can imagine what shopowners affected by the protests are going through. She urged people to "stop wasting your time and hurting our family."

About 15 protesters were initally taken into custody around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, but over 100 more arrests were made after police cornered protesters outside the Paramount Theatre around 11 p.m., said Oakland Police spokesman Jeff Thomason.

Charges against those arrested include inciting a riot, assault on a police officer, vandalism, rioting and unlawful assembly, Thomason said. Two of the arrests involved illegal handgun possession and another was for drug violations.

He indicated at least one person, a TV cameraman, was injured in the violence. No police officers were hurt, he said. 

Heavy police presence greeted BART commuters Thursday and officers patrolled outside BART headquarters in Oakland to ensure calm during the agency's board of directors meeting, where many African-American community leaders expressed outrage over the killing of Grant, who was black.

Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson told BART directors that Grant's death "appeared to be an execution,'' and he called for BART to hold a public meeting that allows the community to understand the policies and procedures in which police officers shoot people.

The Rev. Amost Brown was even more blunt: "It was murder. Not trying to explain away, not trying to explain whethere he had his taser or he had his gun. The evidence was there. And we should all say, that was murder. And this gentleman needs to be brought to justice."

Oakland City Councilwoman Desley Brooks said BART appeared to be trying to cover up the incident and alleged, "There was a failure to communicate and acknowledge the taking of a life.''

Brooks also contended that most protests in the wake of Grant's death were peaceful and that the violence was caused by "a renegade group'' that wanted to "wreak havoc.''

What had started as a peaceful demonstration involving about 500 people at the Fruitvale BART station over Grant's shooting death escalated Wednesday night. Oakland police in riot gear threw tear gas and started making arrests as they tried to break up the demonstration; extra officers were called in for duty.

"The crowd started to become more agitated, more hostile, started throwing stuff at the police," Thomason said. "We gave a dispersal order four to five times over a 20-minute period, then we had our officers go in and start making arrests."

A BART police officer, idenitified as 27-year-old Johannes Mehserle, shot Grant on the Fruitvale station platform after responding to reports of men fighting on a train. Four officers had pulled Grant and a few other men out of the train. The victim was lying face down on the platform when he was shot.

The shooting and events leading up to it were captured on amateur videos that have been broadcast on CBS 5 and other television outlets.

BART officials said the agency is trying to conduct a thorough investigation, but that the public appears to be making judgments about the case based on raw video they saw online or on television.

"They see the answer before them playing out over and over on TV, but we have to follow the process and have to turn over evidence to the DA, and the DA decides what to do from there," said BART spokesman Linton Johnson.

Mehserle resigned from the transit agency shortly before he was supposed to be interviewed by investigators Wednesday. Mehserle's attorney declined to comment when contacted by CBS 5 at his Sacramento law office Thursday.

Grant's family in Hayward has filed a $25 million wrongful death claim against BART, and they want prosecutors to file criminal charges against Mehserle.

"There were racial slurs directed at the young men," family attorney John Burris said Thursday. "But I have no evidence that this particular officer (Mehserle) directed racial slurs towards Oscar Grant."

Police have not classified the confrontation as a hate crime.

Some experts who viewed the video clips speculated that Mehserle fired his gun because he believed Grant had a deadly weapon, while others think the officer had mistook his handgun for a stun gun.
 
"I suspect he thought he was reaching for his Taser," said Bruce Siddle, founder of PPCT Management Systems, an Illinois company that trains law-enforcement officers in use-of-force.

"If he was under stress, he would not be able to distinguish between a Taser and his firearm," Siddle said. "You have video footage that seems to suggest that this officer made a tragic mistake."

But George Kirkham, a professor of criminology at the Florida State University who also viewed the footage, said he finds that hard to believe because most Taser stun guns do not look or feel like pistols, and the officer fired in a manner consistent with a handgun, not a Taser.

Kirkham, who works as an expert witness in criminal cases, speculated the officer fired because he thought he saw something in Grant's waistband or pocket that appeared to be a gun or other type of weapon.

"It's not believable that any officer can mix up a Taser and a firearm," said Kirkham, who has examined almost 500 police shootings over the past 30 years. "It's like looking for your steering wheel on the right side of your car rather than the left side."

Reports of police officers mistaking a handgun for a stun gun are rare, but not unheard of. In 2006, a sheriff's deputy in Washington state accidentally shot and wounded a disturbed man after mistakenly using his .40-caliber gun instead of his stun gun.

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums went to the protest scene Wednesday night to call for calm. He then led a group toward City Hall and spoke to them.

"Even with our anger and our pain, let's still address each other with a degree of civility and calmness and not make this tragedy an excuse to engage in violence," said Dellums, who is black. "I don't want anybody hurt, I don't want anybody killed."

His presence did temporarily quell the chaos but when Dellums entered City Hall, the crowd booed him and some violence continued before the arrests were made near the theater.

"There was a group of individuals that were continuing to run from police and burn stuff and throw stuff at the police officers," Thomason said. "They broke up a little bit when Dellums was out there but they never went away."

Dellums and the Oakland Police Department announced Thursday afternoon that OPD would be investigating Grant's shooting, along with the Alameda County District Attorney's office, in addition to the BART investigation.

"I've asked Oakland to investigate the homicide the way they would investigate any homicide," Dellums had told a protester who questioned him on what was being done about the shooting as they walked down 14th Street toward City Hall on Wednesday night.

Thomason said that Oakland police were well equipped to handle the situation: "Our homicide unit is probably one of the best in the state at these types of investigations."

Burris welcomed the idea, saying he was open to an investigation by Oakland police or "another police agency with more experience" with homicides.

He also suggested that the anger behind Wednesday night's violence was not totally related to Grant.

Grant's situation is "symbolic for many African American and Hispanic males of how police respond to them," he said. "We recognize in the city of Oakland there have been a number of police shootings over the past year."

But Burris was quick to add that, "(Grant's family members) want justice, but they don't want any more violence. That officer hasn't been prosecuted... That's why people don't have confidence in the system right now."

District Attorney Tom Orloff said Thursday that his office's investigation probably would take two more weeks.

"I know people are not happy about that and there's a large degree of anger and emotion in the community, but people need to be re-interviewed and a criminal case is not a simple as people think," said Orloff, who added that he wants to conduct "a thorough, thoughtful and objective investigation."

Orloff also refuted claims that his office hadn't contacted the attorney for Mehserle.

Meantime on Thursday, many shopkeepers whose businesses were vandalized were cleaning up. Broken glass from car windows littered 14th Street.

Michael Amine, an employee at the Lakeside Market, said he was at work around 7:45 p.m. when a group of what looked like hundreds of people appeared in the street.

Protesters picked up newspaper racks and threw them into the front window. At one point, Amine and another worker hid in the back of the store.

"I was scared," Amine said.

Across the street, a bus stop was shattered and down the street a black Mazda Protege remained parked with its front and back windows smashed. Farther down, the front doors and a window of a McDonald's restaurant at 14th and Jackson streets were broken.

Thomason said three or four vehicles were burned and that a police car was damaged. About seven fires were reported altogether, and Thomason said some people threw trash into the street then lit it on fire.

Evan Shamar, an organizer of the protest, said a group of anarchists not associated with the organizations hosting the rally had smashed a police vehicle before setting a garbage can on fire — triggering the rioting.

Thomason seemed to agree, saying that many in the crowd were peaceful —but mixed into the group were what he called "professional protestors," some wearing masks designed to conceal their identities. 

Thomason said Oakland police handled the situation well given the short notice. He condemned the violence but said peaceful protests are welcome.

"The Oakland Police Department understands that it's a very sensitive situation what happened with BART PD and we understand that people need an outlet to vent their frustrations," he said. "We're there if people want to peacefully protest, we'll facilitate that."

Thomason also pointed out that the police response Wednesday night and the cleanup Thursday would be very costly to the city.

"People need to understand that Oakland is in a deficit situation and we had to call in officers on overtime," he said.

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