Ex-BART officer sentenced to 2 years for fatal shooting of unarmed man

LOS ANGELES — A former transit police officer convicted of involuntary manslaughter for fatally shooting an unarmed man on an Oakland train station platform was sentenced by a Los Angeles judge Friday to two years in prison.

Johannes Mehserle, 28, contended that he mistakenly used his firearm instead of an electric Taser weapon when he shot Oscar J. Grant III in the early hours of New Year’s Day
2009. But prosecutors argued at his trial that Mehserle meant to reach
for his handgun as he tried to handcuff an unresisting Grant, who was
laying face-down on the platform floor.

Grainy video footage captured by several witnesses
shows Mehserle, who is white, firing one round into the back of Grant,
who was black. The racially charged case sparked rioting in Oakland soon after the shooting and again in July, when a Los Angeles jury acquitted Mehserle of murder but found him guilty of a lesser crime. The trial had been moved to downtown Los Angeles amid concern about the extensive media coverage of the killing in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Mehserle, whose manslaughter conviction included a
gun enhancement that increased his possible sentence, faced up to 14
years in prison. The judge, who called it an “accidental shooting,” on
Friday tossed out the gun enhancement.

During the trial, an Alameda County
prosecutor argued that Mehserle intentionally shot Grant, who had been
detained with several friends after reports of a fight on a train
stopped at the Fruitvale Station. The officer’s
holster was specially designed to prevent easy release of his firearm.
And the prosecutor contrasted the light, bright yellow Taser gun with
the heavier black Sig Sauer handgun that Mehserle fired.

In tearful testimony, Mehserle said he intended to
use his Taser because he believed Grant might be reaching for a gun in
his pants pocket.

Two people, including a friend of Grant’s, testified
that they heard the officer say shortly before the shooting that he
intended to use his Taser. Numerous witnesses said the officer looked
shocked after the gunshot.

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