(Protestors pray during a demonstration for slain 22-year-old Oscar Grant III January 14, 2009 in Oakland, California. (Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images))
Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley will reopen the investigation into the 2009 killing of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old Black man who was fatally shot by a Bay Area Rapid Transit officer.
Grant was fatally shot in the back while lying face down and unarmed at the Fruitvale Station train platform. BART officer Johannes Mehserle shot Grant on New Year’s Day.
The announcement comes after Rev. Wanda Johnson, Grant’s mother, and Cephus X Johnson, Grant’s uncle, called for O’Malley to reopen the case.
“I have assigned a team of lawyers to look back into the circumstances that caused the death of Oscar Grant,” O’Malley said in a statement according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Mehserle was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in July 2010 and served 11 months. The other officer involved, Anthony Pirone, was fired but was never charged in the case.
The shooting was captured on cellphone video and shared on social media. Hundreds of protesters took to the streets calling for Mehserle’s prosecution after the incident. The killing was also the basis for the 2013 movie “Fruitvale Station.”