“Oftentimes when a loved one is killed by law enforcement officers, that individual is demonised,” says reverend Wanda R. Johnson, mother of Oscar Grant III, whose last day on earth was memorialised in Ryan Coogler’s 2013 film Fruitvale Station starring Michael B. Jordan.
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In the early hours of New Year’s Day 2009, Grant, a 22-year-old Black man, was restrained by Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Police. He was forced to lie face down on the train station platform, then shot in the back by officer Johannes Mehserle. Although millions watched one of the very first police shootings captured by mobile phone, no one outside the police department had heard some 60 hours of police investigations, which were kept secret until now.
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Earlier this year, KQED radio station filed a lawsuit against BART, forcing them to comply with California’sThe Right to Know Act, which gives the public access to select records of police misconduct and excessive force. On July 8, NPR and KQED released the newest episode of the On Our Watch podcast, which makes information on those tapes available for the first time.
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Last October, Johnson organised a press conference asking for Grant’s case to be reopened in order to bring charges against a second officer, Anthony “Tony” Pirone, based on the new evidence that had come to light. According to a 2009 Meyers Nave report commissioned by BART, “Pirone 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.”
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