HOMICIDE: Oscar Grant

Trigger Warning: The following case includes depictions of graphic violence. Please read at your own discretion.

The resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in the spring of 2020 once again shed a light on past instances of police brutality, especially against marginalized communities and people of color. One such instance took place in 2009 and involved the death of a Bay Area black man at the hands of a former Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) officer. The following trial and apparent miscarriage of justice would inspire national protests and riots, mirroring the events that would take place just over a decade later. This is the story of Oscar Grant.

Oscar Juliuss Grant III was born on February 27, 1986 and lived in Hayward, California for almost his entire life. After attending both San Lorenzo and Mount Eden high schools until the tenth grade, Grant eventually earned his GED and began working as a meat cutter at Farmer Joe's Marketplace. At the time of his death, Grant was on parole after receiving a sixteen-month sentence on charges of gun possession. Grant was known to be absolutely devoted to his daughter, even placing pink flags on his car windows when he first discovered he would become the father to a baby girl. He planned to go to Chuck E. Cheese with his daughter on the day of his death.

Then BART officer Johannes Mehserle Fatally shot Grant on January 1, 2009 while he lay face down on a Fruitvale Bart Station platform in Oakland, California. The following day, Grant was declared dead at Highland Hospital in Oakland In later reports, Mehserle and his partner, Anthony Pirone responded to an alleged fight on a train at the Fruitvale Station, leading to several men being removed from the train in question and lined up against a wall to stabilize the situation. Pirone would later claim that Grant, who was allegedly not a part of the reported fight, attacked Mehserle when ordered to step off of the train, leading to a larger confrontation. However, security footage contradicted the statements of both officers; Grant did not make physical contact with Mehserle and was not aggressive as reported, yet Pirone forced Grant up against a wall and punched him in the head before pushing him to the floor and kneeing him in the face.

Similar to the tragic homicide of George Floyd, the physical altercation between the three men resulting in Grant’s death was filmed on the cell phone of a bystander and became viral on the internet. The Oakland and larger Bay Area community rallied around Grant and his grieving family calling for the justice system to hold the officers responsible for Grant’s untimely death responsible. The video inspired national protests and riots calling for an end to police brutality and stricter codes of conduct for law enforcement to prevent another such incident.

Regarding the trial and sentencing of the individuals involved, Mehserle was initially charged with intentional murder. Throughout his trial, which was later moved to Los Angeles, he maintained that Grant’s death was the unintentional result of his grabbing and discharging his firearm rather than his Taser, as he intended to do. At the end of his trial, a jury found Mehserle guilty of involuntary manslaughter in July of 2010 but acquitted him on charges of second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter. To clarify, involuntary manslaughter usually entails the unintentional killing of another individual, which distinguishes the charge from first-degree murder, which implies intent and premeditation, and voluntary manslaughter, which is causing the death of another individual in a moment of passion or intense emotion.

The former officer was sentenced to a mere two years in county jail, serving only eleven months of that already short sentence before being released. Protests following this lax sentencing resulted in the arrests of eighty individuals across the country. Following an internal investigation conducted by the BART Police Department, Pirone, Mehserle’s partner, was fired from the force. Investigators found that his use of force on the platform “did not appear reasonable, justifiable or excusable” and condemned his use of racial slurs during the encounter.

Grant's family went on to sue BART in a wrongful death claim, and the two parties ultimately decided upon a $2.8 million settlement in 2011 which went to his mother and daughter. A decade after the tragic incident, a report from the early days of the investigation was released detailing “a cascade of events that ultimately led to the shooting of Grant,” in which Pirone played a major role. The report led Alameda County prosecutors to reopen the investigation, although no charges were ultimately pressed against Pirone for his role in Grant’s killing.

In 2013, the film Fruitvale Station was released, depicting Grant’s final moments and winning several awards, including the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Grant’s death is yet another example of members of law enforcement using excessive and unwarranted force against communities of color and other marginalized peoples, which has become especially relevant in the face of the resurgence of the ever-present Black Lives Matter movement. In 2010, Grant’s family created the Oscar Grant foundation to continue their loved one’s fight for justice. The foundation works to establish a more trusting relationship between law enforcement and residents in high-crime communities such as Oakland and uses grief sessions, youth services, activities ranging from scholarships to athletic programs to support youth in such communities. Grant’s mother continues to regularly meet with other mothers who have lost family members to police violence and advocates for at-risk youth from marginalized communities, carrying on her son’s legacy to this day.

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Sources:

• https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/19/us/california-ag-independent-review-oscar-grant-killing/index.html

• https://www.npr.org/sections/live-updates-protests-for-racial-justice/2020/10/06/920895464/california-district-attorney-says-probe-of-oscar-grant-killing-will-be-reopened

• https://oscargrantfoundation.org/shooting-oscar-grant/

• https://oscargrantfoundation.org/our-history/

• https://www.kqed.org/news/11639679/nine-years-after-oscar-grants-death-his-mother-continues-to-speak-out

• https://exhibits.stanford.edu/saytheirnames/feature/oscar-grant