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Jan 2, 2009 8:10 pm US/Pacific
Oak. Attorney: BART Shooting Was Unjustifiable
OAKLAND (BCN) ―
A veteran civil rights attorney who has talked to family members and friends of a man who was shot and killed Thursday by a Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer said today he thinks the shooting was not justified.
John Burris, an Oakland attorney who has filed numerous lawsuits against police departments on behalf of family members of people who have been shot and killed by officers, said, "My sense is clear that this was an unjustifiable shooting."
Based on his interviews with witnesses to the incident on the platform of the Fruitvale BART station in Oakland shortly after 2 a.m. Thursday that took the life of 22-year-old Oscar Grant of Hayward, Burris believes the Alameda County District Attorney's office should consider filing manslaughter charges against the officer who shot Grant.
Burris, who hasn't yet been officially retained by Grant's family, said Grant was lying on his stomach with his hands out in a non-threatening position when he was shot by a BART police officer who was standing over him.
"There were no movements and he was not trying to overrun the police officer," Burris said.
BART officials said Grant was unarmed and no weapons were recovered at the scene.
BART officials have not released the name of the officer who shot Grant. They said the officer has worked for BART for nearly two years.
The officer has been placed on administrative leave and tested for both alcohol and drugs as part of standard BART police policy.
BART officials implied the shooting was an accident, saying the officer's gun discharged while the police officer and four other officers responded to reports that two groups of young men were fighting on a train that had come from San Francisco and was en route to the Dublin/Pleasanton station.
The train was stopped at the Fruitvale station so the officers could get on board and break up the fight.
But Burris said, "A gun cannot discharge accidentally. You have to have your finger on the trigger."
Burris said witnesses have told him only two people were fighting on the BART train, not two big groups of people.
"This wasn't a melee with 10 to 12 people," Burris said. However, many people were watching the fight, he said.
The attorney said it appears Grant was one of the people who was involved in the fight on the train but he believes "the incident was over" by the time that Grant was shot.
"(Grant) was on the ground and he wasn't threatening anyone," Burris said.
According to BART spokesman Jim Allison three or four people who were on the platform at the Fruitvale station were put in plastic handcuffs during the effort to bring the scuffle under control.
He said two men were taken into custody for questioning after the shooting but were not arrested.
Allison said today he does not want to respond to Burris's comments because there is still an ongoing investigation into the incident.
Burris said he hopes to find out soon if he will be retained by Grant's family.
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