An explosive report about the 2009 murder of Oscar Grant reveals the harrowing moments that led up to the fatal police shooting at an Oakland train station.
According to new records, Bay Area Rapid Transit (Bart) officer Anthony Pirone “started a cascade of events that ultimately led to the shooting,” The Guardian reports.
The report, which was written 10 years ago, has been sealed until a new California police transparency law enabled journalists to seek out the information.
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Grant was famously killed on New Year’s Day 2009 when officers responded to reports of a fight on a crowded train returning from San Francisco. Two officers, including Johannes Mehserle, forced the unarmed Grant to lie face down on the Fruitvale platform.
Mehserle then drew his pistol and shot the handcuffed Grant in the back. The killing was captured on multiple cameras and it quickly went viral.
Newly released details now show that Pirone hurled the N-word at Grant as he detained him and punched him in the face in an “unprovoked” attack and he also gave false statements that didn’t match up with video evidence, investigators said. The report states that “Pirone approached Grant, grabbed hold of him and pushed him against the wall … he [then] appears to have struck him one time in the head or facial area.”
There was also no evidence that Grant “kneed Pirone in the groin,” as the officer falsely reported.
Also in the report, Pirone said he felt as if he was “fighting for my life” with Grant. However, investigators determined that “none of this appears to have happened during the video”.
Pirone also failed to report that he “kneed Grant in the face”. Furthermore, an autopsy determined that Grant suffered a hemorrhage, investigators said.
“Pirone used force against Grant as a first resort and even then the use of force … did not appear reasonable, justifiable or excusable,” the report continued, saying his “willful and reckless conduct … endangered the safety of the public”.
In addition, the report reveals that investigators did not believe Mehserle’s report that he meant to pull his Taser and not his gun. The report said “enhanced video” suggested Mehserle was “intending to pull his firearm and not his Taser”.
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On Thursday, Adante Pointer, one of the civil rights lawyers who is representing Grant’s family, told the Guardian that the report confirms that Bart mishandled grant’s case.
“Bart spent a bunch of public money to defend Mehserle’s actions, to defend the actions of the cops,” he said. “They should have just been forthright with the public and released the details … They should’ve done the right thing and admitted that what the officers did on that platform was wrong.”
Pointer continued: “They made the family fight for years to prove that what happened to their loved one was unjust … You dragged this family through so much.”