Jan 4, 2009 6:34 pm US/Pacific
Family Of Slain BART Rider Plan To Sue
OAKLAND (AP) ―
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Video from the scene of the shooting showed a gun in an officer's holster when the shot was fired.
CBS
Moments before Oscar Grant was fatally shot by a transit agency police officer early New Year's Day, he pleaded with cops not to harm him, a friend said Sunday.
"Oscar yelled, 'You shot me! I got a four-year-old daughter,"' said Fernando Anicete, who was with Grant on the crowded Oakland train station platform at the time of his death.
"Oscar was telling us to calm down and we did," Anicete said about 22-year-old Grant. "We weren't looking for any trouble."
Anicete was among more than 50 people attending a tearful news conference in Oakland on Sunday where Grant's family announced they would file a $25 million lawsuit against the Bay Area Rapid Transit agency this week.
Attorney John Burris said Sunday that the shooting was intentional, and that he planned to ask Alameda County prosecutors to seek criminal charges against the officer. Burris said Grant, of Hayward, Calif., posed no threat to officers when a bullet entered his back and ricocheted to his lung area, killing him almost instantly.
"The officer leaned (in), was straddling over him and pointed his gun directly into the backside and shot (Grant)," said Burris, adding that Grant was handcuffed -- after he was shot. "This was not a deadly force situation."
BART Police Chief Gary Gee said on Sunday evening that the agency is "committed to completing an unbiased, thorough and detailed investigation."
Gee said BART is also cooperating with the Alameda County district attorney's office in its investigation, and urged patience. "This case is not even four days cold. We're in the early stages of the investigation and we will do a very thorough job," he said.
On Sunday, Grant's mother, Wanda Johnson, and Sophina Mesa, his daughter's mother, wept uncontrollably as Burris spoke about Grant. They did not speak, but several said Grant, a butcher at a supermarket near the train station where he was killed, was a loving father showing signs of maturation.
Cephus "Bobby" Johnson, Grant's uncle, said he text messaged his nephew just after midnight Thursday saying, "Happy New Year ... I love you."
Johnson never got a reply.
"I wondered why he didn't text me back," a teary-eyed Johnson said. "And then I found out why."
Still, several unanswered questions remained after BART officers went to Oakland's Fruitvale station to investigate reports of a supposed brawl on a train on which Grant was riding around 2 a.m. Thursday.
BART spokesman Jim Allison has said the officer's gun went off while police were trying to restrain Grant and that Grant was not cuffed. The unidentified officer is on paid leave as BART investigates the shooting.
Mario Pangelina, Mesa's brother who was riding on the same train, two cars behind Grant on Thursday morning, said Sunday he saw Grant beg police not to Taser him because of his child.
"He kept saying, 'Please, please don't Tase me,"' Pangelina said. "He was not acting hostile."
Other witnesses said Grant was lying on his stomach on the station's platform when he was shot.
Recordings of the shooting by witnesses have surfaced and Burris said BART had confiscated numerous cell phone images from others he believes contain additional footage.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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