{"id":16120,"date":"2020-10-07T12:44:10","date_gmt":"2020-10-07T19:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=16120"},"modified":"2020-10-07T12:44:11","modified_gmt":"2020-10-07T19:44:11","slug":"alameda-da-to-reopen-oscar-grant-case-as-family-demands-charges-against-second-officer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2020\/10\/07\/alameda-da-to-reopen-oscar-grant-case-as-family-demands-charges-against-second-officer\/","title":{"rendered":"Alameda DA to reopen Oscar Grant case, as family demands charges against second officer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Michael Williams\u00a0<\/a>Oct. 5, 2020\u00a0(SFChronicle.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
1of8A large mural honoring the late Oscar Grant is seen on the side of Fruitvale BART Station during a mural and street naming unveiling in Oakland, Calif. Saturday, June 8, 2019. Alameda District Attorney Nancy O\u2019Malley said Oct. 5 that her office intends to reopen Grant\u2019s case.Photo: Jessica Christian \/ The Chronicle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Wanda
2of8Wanda Johnson (left), mother of the late Oscar Grant, greets a friend while standing underneath a large mural honoring her son during a mural and street naming unveiling for Oscar Grant at Fruitvale BART Station in Oakland, Calif. Saturday, June 8, 2019.Photo: Jessica Christian, The Chronicle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"A
3of8A large mural is seen behind a street named after the late Oscar Grant during a formal unveiling at Fruitvale Station in Oakland, Calif. Saturday, June 8, 2019.Photo: Jessica Christian, The Chronicle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Alameda County prosecutors said Monday they would reopen their investigation into the fatal shooting of Oscar Grant by a BART police officer <\/a>more than a decade ago, a stunning decision that came amid a national reckoning over police shootings of Black people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are re-opening our investigation,\u201d Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O\u2019Malley said in a statement. \u201cI have assigned a team of lawyers to look back into the circumstances that caused the death of Oscar Grant.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

O\u2019Malley did not say what part of the shooting at the Fruitvale Station in Oakland she would re-examine. Johannes Mehserle, the BART officer who pulled the trigger on New Year\u2019s Day in 2009, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 2010 and served a jail sentence. Mehserle had said he thought he was shocking Grant with a Taser, not shooting his pistol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other officers involved in the arrest and shooting were not charged, a continued source of grievance for Grant\u2019s family. One officer, Anthony Pirone, pulled the 22-year-old Grant from a train aggressively and knelt on his neck before he was shot, according to court testimony and video of the incident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pirone was fired but never charged in the case, which was captured on video and became an early rallying point for calls to end police brutality against Black people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

O\u2019Malley\u2019s announcement came as Grant\u2019s family gathered Monday in front of the Fruitvale BART Station to demand O\u2019Malley charge Pirone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOscar was denied his full justice,\u201d said Grant\u2019s mother, the Rev. Wanda Johnson, under a mural of her son at the station where he was killed. \u201c\u2026 I am calling for the district attorney to bring charges against (Pirone) and charge him for his actions that escalated \u2014 instead of de-escalating the situation \u2014 and caused the loss of my son\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After O\u2019Malley\u2019s announcement, Johnson said she was \u201cgrateful that O\u2019Malley re-opened the case, that she kept her word from years ago when she said she would.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnson questioned whether that decision would have come had the family not held the news conference Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think maybe she thought that we might\u2019ve forgotten,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cWhy else would you make this announcement, 11 years later?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnson said she wants Pirone to be charged with accessory to murder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pirone\u2019s lawyer Bill Rapoport died in 2018. Pirone did not answer a phone number listed under his name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The incident began on a BART train. Grant was on his way home from San Francisco, surrounded by friends and packed among New Year\u2019s revelers, when he fought with another passenger. Police were called, and Grant and four friends were detained by Pirone at Fruitvale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Court testimony and video showed that Pirone pulled Grant and his friends off the train so aggressively that other riders loudly objected. Pirone got physical<\/a> at least two more times with Grant, kneeing him and pulling him violently to the concrete platform. At one point, apparently angry at being called a profane name, Pirone leaned in close to Grant and shouted back at him, \u201cBitch-ass n\u2014, right? Bitch-ass n\u2014, right?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Pirone and Grant shouted profanities at each other, Pirone told Mehserle \u2014 who had arrived after driving to the station in a patrol car \u2014 to arrest Grant for resisting, announcing that \u201cthis motherf\u2014er is going to jail.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After being instructed to arrest Grant and one of his friends, Mehserle struggled to handcuff Grant while forcing him from his knees onto his chest. After about 10 seconds, Mehserle \u2014 who later testified he feared Grant might pull a gun, though he was unarmed \u2014 unholstered his service pistol, stood up and fired a single shot into Grant\u2019s back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A BART internal investigation found Pirone lied repeatedly to investigators<\/a>, telling them he felt he was \u201cfighting for my life\u201d when in fact he was the aggressor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPirone was, in large part, responsible for setting the events in motion that created a chaotic and tense situation on the platform, setting the stage, even if inadvertent, for the shooting of Oscar Grant,\u201d the 2009 report concluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report cited Pirone\u2019s \u201crepeated, unreasonable and unnecessary use of force,\u201d his \u201cmanifest lack of veracity\u201d and his use of the word \u201cn\u2014\u201d while arguing with Grant in recommending the officer\u2019s firing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attorney John Burris, who has represented family members and friends of Oscar Grant in multiple federal civil rights lawsuits, acknowledged that this is an unusual move for O\u2019Malley, who in the past was not known for aggressively prosecuting police officers. Last month, O\u2019Malley charged a San Leandro police officer<\/a> with voluntary manslaughter in the shooting death of Steven Taylor at a Walmart earlier this year. That officer, Jason Fletcher, was the first officer in Alameda County to be charged in an on-duty shooting since Mehserle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Burris has long advocated for Pirone to be prosecuted for use of force, because he took Grant\u2019s friend Michael Greer to the ground with a leg sweep and got physical with Grant multiple times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see her (O\u2019Malley) prosecuting (Pirone) for murder,\u201d Burris said. \u201cThe question is whether the statute of limitations had run on the issue of force \u2014 the beating of these two guys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPirone is the instigator of this entire event. It was his actions that caused the entire series of events to occur.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chronicle staff writer Rachel Swan contributed to this report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael Williams is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email Michael.Williams@sfchronicle.com<\/a> Twitter @michaeldamianw<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael Williams<\/a><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Follow Michael on:https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SFChronicle\/<\/a>michaeldamianw<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael Williams is a breaking news reporter for The San Francisco Chronicle. A Florida native, he grew up in Pensacola and went to school at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. Before joining The Chronicle in 2020, Michael covered breaking news and crime at the Orlando Sentinel and business at the Albany Times Union in New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u00a92020 Hearst<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Williams\u00a0Oct. 5, 2020\u00a0(SFChronicle.com) Alameda County prosecutors said Monday they would reopen their investigation into the fatal shooting of Oscar Grant by a BART police officer more than a decade ago, a stunning decision that came amid a national reckoning over police shootings of Black people. \u201cWe are re-opening our investigation,\u201d Alameda… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16120"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16120"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16121,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16120\/revisions\/16121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}