Local News

OAKLAND (CBS 5 / KCBS / AP / BCN) ― An Oakland attorney representing the family of a man slain by a Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer early New Year's Day said Sunday that they will file a $25 million lawsuit against BART.

Lawyer John Burris said at a news conference that he planned to file the claim against the transit agency in the shooting death of 22-year Oscar Grant of Hayward within a week.

Burris on Sunday called the shooting intentional and said he would ask prosecutors to seek criminal charges against the officer. He reiterated that Grant, who witnesses said was lying on the ground waiting to be handcuffed, posed no threat when he was fatally shot around 2:15 a.m. Thursday.

"He was not doing anything of a threatening nature to the officer," Burris said.

Home video, provided to CBS 5 on Saturday by 19-year-old witness Kristin Vargas, would seem to support the contention that Grant was laying on his stomach with his hands behind him on a train platform when a single shot was fired by a BART officer.

BART spokesman Jim Allison said the officer's gun went off while police were trying to restrain Grant at BART's Fruitvale station in Oakland, and that Grant was not cuffed.

At least four BART officers had responded to the station to reports of a fight on a train that Grant was on. That train was stopped to let the officers break up the supposed brawl.

Burris said he had interviewed witnesses and viewed the home video of the incident and vehemently disagreed with any notion that the officer's gun accidently discharged.

"This was an intentional pulling of the trigger," he told reporters. "It was an intentional act."

"The officer leaned (in), was straddling over him and pointed his gun directly into the backside and shot (Grant)," said Burris, adding that Grant was handcuffed after he was shot. "This was not a deadly force situation."

Burris said the bullet entered Grant's back and ricocheted to his lung area, killing him almost immediately.

The unidentified officer is on administrative leave, while the Alameda County District Attorney's Office conducts an investigation.

BART Police Chief Gary Gee said on Sunday evening that the agency was "committed to completing an unbiased, thorough and detailed investigation."

Gee said BART was cooperating with the district attorney's office in its investigation, and urged patience. "This case is not even four days cold. We're in the early stages of the investigation and we will do a very thorough job," he said.

More than 50 family members and friends, at Sunday's tearful news conference where the lawsuit was announced, remembered Grant as being a loving father of a 4-year-old daughter, a hard worker and a sports enthusiast.

Moments before Grant was shot, he pleaded with cops not to harm him, said Fernando Anicete, a friend who was with Grant on the crowded train platform at the time of his death.

"Oscar yelled, I got a four-year-old daughter,'" said Anicete. "Oscar was telling us to calm down and we did. We weren't looking for any trouble."

Grant's mother, Wanda Johnson, and Sophina Mesa, his daughter's mother, wept uncontrollably as others spoke about Grant. They did not speak, but several said Grant, a butcher at a supermarket near the train station where he was killed, was a devoted father showing signs of maturation.

Mario Pangelina, Mesa's brother who was riding on the same train, two cars behind Grant, said he saw Grant beg police not to Taser him because of his child.

"He kept saying, 'Please, please don't Tase me,'" Pangelina said. "He was not acting hostile."

Cephus "Bobby" Johnson, Grant's uncle, said he text messaged his nephew just after midnight Thursday saying, "Happy New Year ... I love you."

Johnson never got a reply.

"I wondered why he didn't text me back," a teary-eyed Johnson said. "And then I found out why."

Grant's family has scheduled a memorial service at 11 a.m. Wednesday at Palma Ceia Baptist Church at 28605 Ruus Road in Hayward.

(© 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.)