Oscar Grant III, Fatally Shot By Police Officer On Subway Train (VIDEO)

KTVU San Francisco:

OAKLAND, Caif. -- Law enforcement officials urged patience while they investigated details surrounding the fatal New Year's Day shooting of a 22-year-old man by a transit agency police officer.

Bay Area Rapid Transit Police Chief Gary Gee said on Sunday that the agency is "committed to completing an unbiased, thorough and detailed investigation" of the shooting death of Oscar Grant.

Read the whole story: KTVU San Francisco

Comments

[vbrans]

01:40 PM on 01/08/2009

This is not Only a race issue.The police are out of control.Although the black community gets the worst of it, police have become fairly indiscriminate in their thuggish behavior.This has to stop.By violent means if necessary.Peaceful protest doesn't work when it is no longer permitted except in "free speech zones".The Kent State massacre would barely make the news if it happened today.FTP!!!!

[citizensrus]

01:13 PM on 01/08/2009

Is there a web page in memory of Oscar Grant III and a demand for justice?

[HarlemFreeThought]

01:22 AM on 01/09/2009

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/01/08/18559668.php
http://community.feministing.com/2009/01/update-on-fruitvale-bart-prote.html

are just a couple to get to statred

[citizensrus]

11:29 PM on 01/11/2009

Thank you.

[citizensrus]

01:12 PM on 01/08/2009

We need to stand up for the execution of Oscar Grant III. This is racial injustice. There is no defense of this victim on the news. Imagine if this was a white man?

[scottymac11]

12:36 PM on 01/08/2009

I have looked at several of the videos of the incident. I have three questions. Some of the videos record what went on after the shooting. I don't see any of the cops assisting the victim. WHY? Secondly considering the apparently criminal behavior of the officer,why is he out free and not on bail or in jail. Does he still have a firearm in his posession?

[midwestgayguy]

11:03 AM on 01/08/2009

Why do the police think they have the right to confiscate any video recorded material of their actions.

Is there anyone with accurate knowledge on HuffPo who can inform us of our rights when a police officer asks us to surrender a camera or cell phone if we are only witnesses? I'd really like to know my legal rights in a matter such as this because they did take someones private equipment without a warrant.

[scottymac11]

12:38 PM on 01/08/2009

Police think they have authority to do anything that they feel wiil assist the police do anything. Even if it is covering up for a killer cop.

[citizensrus]

01:36 PM on 01/08/2009

Exactly!

[MikeCL1]

02:01 AM on 01/08/2009

I heard a comment on the CBS 5 news report saying that the office may have mistaken his gun for his taser................ WHAT??????? You have got to be kidding me!! There is no way that is possible. he is a professional trained officer. If cannot tell the diffrence between the shape and location of his taser, then he should not be a police officer. Those mistakes cannot be allowed. An officer can't make those mistakes. No excuse.

[Brainspore]

01:21 PM on 01/08/2009

Clearly that is not an excuse and this guy should definitely not have been a police officer. (As of yesterday, he isn't anymore.) However it is one possible explanation for how this could have happened, because even a complete sociopath would normally have enough discretion not to shoot an unarmed guy in the back in front of hundreds of witnesses. I could imagine an abusive cop using a taser, however.

Of course either a taser or a gun would be grossly inappropriate to use against an unarmed suspect lying prone on the ground. But which one the cop THOUGHT he was pulling out could mean the difference between manslaughter and murder.

[AnyaIsabel]

10:54 PM on 01/07/2009

Now whats going to happen now that the Cop RESIGNED today? without a statement? this really complicates things. But this case is getting more and more attention from amnesty international to the naacp.

[blorenzo]

08:54 PM on 01/07/2009

If anyone has not seen the video you can look at them here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmJukcFzEX4

This is very compelling video. America needs to address this accordingly.

[dukesman]

03:27 PM on 01/07/2009

It’s been open season on the Black man. Amadou Diallo, Timothy Stansbury, Sean Bell, Oscar J. Grant III and countless other Black men who have fallen victims to this pseudo-KKK posse known as the police force. People, do not fool yourselves, there is only one way to stop this – violence begets violence and evil only respects greater evil. America will not think twice about going to war and turning countries in virtual parking lots if it believes its country or interests around the world are being threatened. So how in the world could America look at a black man today and expect him to remain calm when he is being targeted and murdered by these racist cops? If there is going to be a funeral processing for you, your son, husband, nephew, cousin or friend; let there be a funeral procession at the police headquarters.

[bevoanne]

02:52 PM on 01/07/2009

This is America- everything is either racial, classist or both.

An African-American male friend of mine was ridding his bike along the lakefront when suddenly he was knocked off the bike by a policeman then taken to jail. My friend found out that there had been a robbery in the area and that the suspect was a black male. When police realized that my friend wasn't their robber, they charged him with buggery. No apology was made.

An African-American female friend of mine was crossing the street of her residential neighborhood with a 3 year old child and another adult female. Out of nowhere, a police squad car comes speeding down the street with no lights or sirens. My friend reacted quickly by picking up the child and running to the curb. When the other female shouted to the squad car to slow down, the officer driving the car stopped, backed up and got out of the vehicle. He told my friend that she was black, poor and uneducated and that there was nothing that she could do. When the other woman responded to the officer's comment, she was arrested and taken to jail.

Haven't we learned anything from the Rodney King trial or Jon Burge? I guess my friends are the lucky ones.

[Felicty]

03:01 PM on 01/07/2009

Charged with BUGGERY?

Now that was a creative stretch...

[antv]

11:37 PM on 01/09/2009

We've learned that a uniform and badge make everything O.K. How many more people need to be shot, beaten, sodomized, or tazed to death before someone really starts policing the police? A blue uniform doesn't make someone any less of a criminal.

[Felicty]

11:56 AM on 01/07/2009

I live in Northern CA, and what is truly sad is that this cop will go unpunished for his murder of a black male.

As sure as the sun will come up tomorrow.

[cyoohoos]

11:29 AM on 01/07/2009

Youtube Video of this incident... warning, it's violent and hard to watch. I still can't believe it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idJAr6NUy3E

[Kallista6667]

10:50 AM on 01/07/2009

There are over 6K comments on an article about Anne Coulter cancelling the Today Show and it was front page top billing all day yesterday, meanwhile this has less then 200 posts. Where is the OUTRAGE?

[HarlemFreeThought]

02:53 PM on 01/07/2009

How True i hate to say this but maybe a white cop needs to shoot a white teen before there is outrage.

[citizensrus]

01:23 PM on 01/08/2009

A man lying face down on the ground, a man with his knee in his back holding him down, draws out his gun, and shoots him in the back. This while the man is pleading 'not to be tased'..because he has a 4 year old child. He has no idea that in one moment that child would be left fatherless because he would be EXECUTED. This happened in America, and the people are silent. Even the President and the President-elect is silent. Welcome to justice, American style, because the people did not speak up for their rights. It's our doing. We will have no one to blame but ourselves when this happens more and more.Oscar Grant will be the rule, not the exception, if this isn't given the priority it deserves.

[dimelaverdad]

08:40 PM on 01/06/2009

No man, white, black, latino, asian, no man deserves to be treated like that.

I'm saddened. I've worked in law enforcement and never have I seen a case of blatant disregard for human life, like I saw in that video. What police officer pulls their weapon, releases the safety, and shoots a man that quickly, accidently?

He needs to be fired, and charged with manslaughter. That is what I just witnessed, manslaughter.

[rmarie]

01:07 PM on 01/08/2009

I saw a murder, not manslaughter. He had to think about pulling out that weapon, firing it, and aiming to kill an unarmed man. That's premeditation in my book.

[StillweRise]

02:00 PM on 01/06/2009

43 yrear old black male.... and I am stunned.... I know I shouldn't be. It just seems we are always about to get past things like this..... and then we get the reminders that as far as we have come, we still have forever to go...

sat, stunned, outrage.