Johannes Mehserle, the former BART police officer accused of murder in the January 1, 2009 shooting death of 22-year-old Oscar Grant, was released today after posting $3 million bail.
Johannes Mehserle
Johannes Mehserle, the 27-year old former Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police officer accused of murdering Oscar Grant, posted $3 million bail and was released from jail in Alameda County, California this afternoon.
Mehserle has pleaded not guilty to the charge of murdering 22-year-old Oscar Grant on an Oakland BART platform. We reported on the incident here, where we posted the now famous video of the incident. Multiple videos of the incident have been released by numerous media sources since the incident. The videos show Oscar Grant lying on the BART platform when Mehserle shoots him without any visible provocation. His defense attorneys have argued that Mehserle accidentally shot Grant with his service weapon, when he intended to disable him with a Taser. The defense is likely attempting to have Mehserle convicted of a lesser charge like manslaughter or negligent homicide instead of murder.
The shooting sparked protests throughout the Bay Area, some of which led to vandalism and property destruction. This afternoon, there was another protest in downtown Oakland against police brutality, which coincided with Mehserle’s release. However, since the event was planned in advance, most of today’s protesters were unaware of Mehserle’s release.
See video taken at Johannes Mehserle’s bail hearing:
Johannes Mehserle Bail Hearing
February 7th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
Frankly, this whole episode has made me not want to ride the Bart ever again. It use to be pleasant, laid back, clean and fun without a hint of hostility. Now either a gangster or agent of the state can simply target you over whatever and be totally imcompetent or willful at it… What kind of training do they even give these people and what of their supervision?
I think its dangerous to arm all the officers and put them in the cars with such up close proximity to the public. Any discharge of a weapon could easily hit an unintended passenger. If they had a more restricted taser use policy this may never have happened.
May 7th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
I think this is bullsh!t. He knew exactly what he was reaching for, he just didn’t know he wasn’t gonna get away with what he was doing. If there was no cameras, he would have lied like all police do to get themselves out of trouble!!! Police are trained to go for the gun on the right, and tazer on the lower left(and just the opposite if your left handed). Usually officers who regularly abuse their power are usually caught sooner or later, this was his time to be exposed. Everything in the dark will come to the light!