Police
Officer Who Shot Oscar Grant is Found Guilty of Involuntary Manslaughter
Johannes Mesherle testified he mistakenly shot and killed Oscar Grant, when he reached for his gun when he meant to reach for his taser.
Former BART officer Johannes Mehserle has been found guilty for the fatal shooting of Oscar Grant on a train platform on New Year’s Day in 2009.
The jury reached its verdict and found Mehserle guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the trial against shooting the unarmed Black man.
Mehserle testified he mistakenly shot and killed Grant when he reached for his gun when he meant to reach for his taser.
Involuntary manslaughter carries up to a sentence of 2 to 4 years in prison. As for the minimum, Mehserle could be sentenced to probation.
“The system has let us down, but God will never, ever let us down. Though the system has failed us, though we fight continually, but one thing I know, the race is not given to the swift or to the strong, but to the one who endures until the end. As a family and as a nation of African American people, we will continue to fight for our equal rights in this society,” said Grant’s mother Wanda Johnson. “My son was murdered. He was murdered. He was murdered. He was murdered.”
Grant’s family attorney John Burris called the verdict a small victory, but also called it a “compromise verdict” and said it was a step backwards because “true justice” was not served.
“We are extremely disappointed with this verdict. The verdict is not a true representative of what happened to Oscar Grant and what the officer did to him that night. This is not an involuntary manslaughter case. This is a true compromise verdict that does not truly and accurately reflect the facts, and we are extraordinarily disappointed at that,” Burris said outside the courtroom. “We believe this was a murder case, a second-degree murder. We are surprised that the jury came back as quickly as they did and seem to be very dismissive of the murder charge and the voluntary manslaughter.”