- The Protest March in Oakland will still be held despite
the arrest of the fugitive Ex-cop in the New Year's Day BART killing in
Fruitvale.
-
- BART officer arrested on murder warrant in NY Day shooting
- Demian Bulwa, Leslie Fulbright, Henry K. Lee, Chronicle
Staff Writers
- Wednesday, January 14, 2009
- "(01-14) 00:13 PST Oakland -- The BART police officer
who fatally shot an unarmed man on an Oakland train platform and then
refused to explain his actions to investigators was arrested Tuesday in
Nevada on suspicion of murder, authorities said.
-
- BART Shooting
- Mehserle to appear at extradition hearing 01.14.09
- Ex-officer Mehserle arrested in Nevada 01.14.09
- Oakland braces for another protest 01.13.09
- S.F. protesters: 'We are Oscar Grant!' 01.12.09
- BART officials complete preliminary probe 01.12.09
- Carroll: My hometown 01.13.09
- BART calls meeting on killing, gets flak 01.11.09
- Brown pushes D.A. to act swiftly 01.10.09
- CBS 5 video: Shooting caught on video 01.06.09
- Full Coverage: Photos, videos, stories
- Johannes Mehserle, 27, of Lafayette was taken into custody
in Douglas County, Nev., said Deputy Steve Velez of the Douglas County
sheriff's office. The arrest was also confirmed by David Chai, chief
of staff to Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums.
-
- Mehserle was arrested in the New Year's Day shooting
of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old supermarket worker from Hayward who was
lying facedown after being pulled off a BART train by police investigating
a fight. An Alameda County judge signed an arrest warrant alleging murder,
and Mehserle surrendered without incident, authorities said.
-
- The shooting, which was recorded by passengers in videos
widely circulated on the Internet and television, prompted public outrage,
and some viewers said that the shooting appeared to be an execution.
-
- Sources said Mehserle was in Nevada because he feared
for his safety after death threats were made against him. Douglas County
is 15 miles south of Carson City in northwestern Nevada and includes
part of Lake Tahoe.
-
- Mehserle's attorney, Christopher W. Miller of Sacramento,
confirmed early today that his client was arrested on suspicion of murder.
He said he would not comment further until a news conference today.
-
- Alameda County District Attorney Tom Orloff was expected
to announce details of the arrest today. He could not be reached late
Tuesday.
-
- Authorities have been under immense pressure to take
action in the case. On Tuesday, BART board President Thomas Blalock and
board Director Carole Ward Allen sent a letter to Orloff, urging the
district attorney to move expeditiously to complete the investigation
and file charges if warranted.
-
- Some Oakland community leaders and civil rights activists
said the case is symbolic of larger problems with police officers using
excessive force on young black men. Grant was black and Mehserle is white.
-
- The arrest came on the eve of a protest scheduled for
4 p.m. today outside Oakland City Hall, the latest in a series of demonstrations
in which BART has been accused of mishandling the investigation.
-
- BART police on Monday turned over the results of their
preliminary investigation to Orloff's office. A separate investigation
by Oakland police was launched last week, and Mehserle's arrest was related
to that probe, sources said. The state attorney general is also monitoring
the case.
-
- BART officers had detained Grant and several other passengers
at about 2 a.m. Jan. 1 as they investigated a fight aboard a train from
San Francisco. Passengers with cellular phone cameras captured footage
that shows Grant lying facedown when he was shot.
-
- In the videos, Mehserle appears to be trying to put cuffs
on Grant, and Grant appears to be struggling, when Mehserle suddenly pulls
his service weapon from his holster and fires one shot into Grant's back.
-
- Mehserle declined to speak to BART criminal investigators
after the shooting. Then last Wednesday he resigned rather than answer
questions from BART's internal affairs division.
-
- His departure came the same day Grant was buried and
a peaceful protest at the Fruitvale BART Station erupted into violence
in downtown Oakland. Demonstrators set cars on fire and broke windows
at dozens of businesses. By night's end, police had arrested 105 people.
-
- Grant's family has filed a $25 million legal claim against
BART, signaling an intention to sue for damages. The family's attorney,
John Burris, said late Tuesday that he was pleased to hear of Mehserle's
arrest.
-
- "If it's true, the family is delighted, and it will
really help with the healing process," Burris said. "This is
also very important for the community. This had to occur; it was almost
a no- brainer. I think the district attorney ought to be commended for
moving (the case) expeditiously." (1)
-
- Chronicle staff writers Jaxon Van Derbeken, Andrew Ross
and Christopher Heredia contributed to this report. E-mail the writers
at dbulwa@sfchronicle.com, lfulbright@sfchronicle.com and hlee@sfchronicle.com"
- This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco
Chronicle
-
- AND: BART looks at service cuts, boosting fares and lot
fees that were delayed due to the murder of Mr. Grant, and the undesirable
press coverage of it over the last fourteen days.
- "BART officials, faced with a projected budget shortfall
of up to $92 million over the next 18 months, warn that service cuts and
higher fares may be imposed later this year to balance the budget.
-
- Commuters also may pay more for parking at station lots
and see their trains wrapped in advertising, in effect turning them into
moving billboards.
-
- "We're exploring everything," said Carter Mau,
executive manager of planning and budget for BART.
-
- Confronted with falling fare and sales tax revenue, as
well as anticipated funding cuts from the state, the nation's economic
crisis has caught up to BART, the regional rail operation with an average
weekday ridership of 348,000.
-
- BART administrators had floated the idea of moving forward
quickly with a plan to reduce the frequency of service at half the stations
on nights and weekends, running the trains every 20 minutes instead of
every 15.
-
- But the idea was put on hold after the BART Board of
Directors delayed the scheduled budget session to deal with the fallout
from the fatal New Year's Day shooting of an unarmed man by a BART police
officer, agency spokesman Linton Johnson said Tuesday." (2)
-
- BART must undergo a full and complete public audit by
the State of California, before any more money can be summarily given
to this star-crossed agency. The management of BART also needs to undergo
a serious investigation from top to bottom that focuses on everything
from management practices to law enforcement procedures; because the
travesty that BART has become to the citizens of Northern California is
an obscenity. This is necessary because BART has refused all requests
to open their books to the public that is being asked to give them even
more money!
-
- The hostile inaction of so many "officials, both
inside and outside of BART, surrounding this execution of an unarmed and
unresisting citizen must be answered for in public and on the record:
before any thought of "more money" can even be remotely considered.
-
- BART has treated the public that rides its rails with
utter contempt for decades. Since 911 the rest rooms in the underground
stations have remained closed to the public, and all the trash cans in
those stations have been removed (a national security precaution). Tickets
for senior riders have been restricted, and are only sold in two places
during working hours five days a week in the City of San Francisco; which
is a city of a half-million people with a huge senior population. BART's
ticket prices and their so-called schedules have been fraught with miscalculations
and failures on a routine basis with no complaint department to
handle any of the public's problems with their rates or their service.
-
- The public was told that BART was a transportation necessity
in the Bay Area when they were raising the money to build it: but once
they began their "service" the public was told that they are
in reality only a commuter service, to facilitate the movement of workers
to their jobs, and that BART is not a public transportation agency that
has any responsibility to move people around within the nine counties
of the Bay Area, when those riders are not going to work. This part of
their arrogance is what makes their demands for ever-more money intolerable.
-
- And of course now that this execution has occurred, it
would seem mandatory that everything associated with BART and all its
practices be thoroughly and publicly INVESTIGATED.
-
- kirwanstudios@sbcglobal.net
-
-
- 1) BART officer Arrested
- http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/13/
BAM615A08A.DTL&tsp=1
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- 2) BART looks at service cuts, boosting fares and lot
fees
- http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/14/
BAPQ159J6Q.DTL&hw=BART+looks+at+service+cuts+boosting+fares+lot +fees&sn=001&sc=1000
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