The officer involved in a New Year’s Day shooting that left a passenger dead in a crowded Oakland, California, subway station resigned Wednesday, a Bay Area Rapid Transit spokesman said.
Oscar Grant, 22, was killed January 1 in a shooting at a subway station in California’s Bay Area.
BART spokesman Linton Johnson said in a statement that the officer’s attorney and his union representative submitted the resignation at a meeting Wednesday morning with BART police investigators. The officer was going to be at the meeting but did not show up, Johnson said.
The resignation was effective immediately.
Shortly before the funeral for the passenger, 22-year-old Oscar Grant, Johnson said the officer had received death threats.
The BART officer fatally shot Grant in the back after he and some friends were pulled from a train car following a report of an altercation, according to a BART statement.
On Tuesday, attorney John Burris filed a $25 million claim with BART in which he identified the officer as Johannes Mehserle. Several local media outlets had already identified the officer.
Burris alleges in the claim, “Without so much as flinching the Officer Mehserle stood over Grant and mercilessly fired his weapon, mortally wounding Mr. Grant with a single gunshot wound to the back.”
Why is this officer not in jail? if this was the other way around and the victim had shot the officer he would either be dead or beaten half to death in a jail cell, why are there no charges filed for murder, manslaughter or even a simple assault charge, where is the outrage in this country anymore?
there is a huge riot going on in Oakland right now over this issue… the people are pissed! i’m talkin all the people. this is going on right down the street from my house!!! sadly, the protesters are fighting with eachother, and trashing local businesses. there are helicopters everywhere, and at least 50k people stretched out from the fruitvale bart station all the way into downtown oakland at broadway and 14th st.
the cop is going to face charges, but they need to investigate and get all their business together to do it right. there will be justice for Oscar Grant. my heart goes out to his family, and i see my community getting ripped apart by this. i can’t help but feel compassion for everyone involved. i wish we weren’t fighting and rioting among our selves, it seems pointless, and it only hurts oakland more.
Black people, please act more civilized than this. Rioting is not the way to deal with anger. We must rise above the jungle mentality. If we act like wild animal, then we will be treated like wild animal. Where is your since of self-control. We must stop killing one another. What does fighting one another solve? Does killing one another bring this young man back? Hell no! So, the proper recourse would be to have a civil protest outside of your local police station. And I do mean civil. Didn’t Dr. King teach you anything? You must not act in ignorance. Keep your dignity and be a whole people. Do not repay evil with evil. I know that most Black people know the Word of God. We must stop sipping on the milk of this life and eat the true meat of God’s Word for strength through storms like this. This officer has some real issues with fear of Black people. So, does that justify you tearing up someone else’s property or killing and hurting one another? Hell no! Grow up Black people!