Man fatally shot by BART police officer

[Fireweed247]

BART officials said officers were responding to the station at about 2 a.m. after the operations control center reported an altercation aboard a Dublin/Pleasanton-bound train, said BART spokesman Jim Allison.

The train arrived at Fruitvale and passengers began getting on and off.

The victim was shot on the platform when a BART police officer's firearm discharged, Allison said. The critically injured man was taken to Highland Hospital where he died this morning, the Alameda County Coroner's Office said.

While witness accounts reported by news organizations indicate Grant was on the ground and handcuffed when he was shot...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/01/BAB9152I2Q.DTL

[Starry Messenger]

1. Holy shit.

That's my station. I heard the sirens this morning. That is seriously fucked.

[davidinalameda]

3. that's my station as well

I live in Alameda

[Starry Messenger]

4. I live by the Vulcan.

This is horrible. :(

[Redneck Socialist]

2. All by itself hunh?

"The victim was shot on the platform when a BART police officer's firearm discharged..."

The gun went off all by itself did it? That's amazing.

[Incitatus]

12. I guess guns really do kill people.

hmmmmmmmmmm

[Fireweed247]

5. Check out one of the comments

"I was one of the witnesses, I saw it from the train. I called in with a recorded statement earlier today. The man was completely restrained and was not being violent; he had two cops on him, was face down and cuffed, and one of them pulled out his gun and shot him point-blank. He was resisting in no way. Shame on all of you calling him a 'hoodlum' and a 'punk'; he did nothing to deserve that."

[Starry Messenger]

7. I'm glad she wrote in.

SFgate gets disgustingly freeped when something like this happens.

[cabluedem]

8. Well, now you have it, folks. Man shot dead for NO VALID REASON. Whatta ya gonna do? Call the cops?

[CreekDog]

17. the witnesses were on TV also and said the same thing

that's cold blooded murder by a police officer.

unless nobody saw what they saw. :eyes:

[Shardik]

6. Terrible reporting.

The gun "discharged?" How? How many times? Why?

[AndyTiedye]

9. Guns Just Go Off By Themselves. Happens All The Time Dontyaknow

:sarcasm: but that's what the cops want us to believe, obviously.

[Shardik]

14. The guy in cuffs used his psychic powers to make the gun discharge and

therefore, was trying to harm the police by making it look as if they had shot him.

[Fireweed247]

15. good one

They might try to use that.

[Shardik]

19. It wouldn't surprise me. n/t

[CreekDog]

16. it's the Chronicle. we are lucky to know what species was involved

that said, the guy who was shot was in handcuffs and witnesses on the platform and train said the guy was shot while on the ground and in handcuffs --at first BART police disputed this.

this is incredibly bad.

[Fireweed247]

10. they keep deleting comments

I read one comment from a witness who said his ankles were bound as well, kind like something you might see at Abu ghraib...but the comment was quickly removed. Maybe this guy was a former employee of Blackwater or military back from Iraq...

[Starry Messenger]

11. Here's another article with some more details.

http://www.ktvu.com/news/18394595/detail.html#-

"Grant's girlfriend says she talked to him just before he was shot.

"All I know is I heard a loud pop," explained the girlfriend. "I thought it was a gunshot. My last phone call he said 'They’re beating me up for no reason. I gotta go.' And I heard the gunshot. I didn't want to think the worst"

Several witnesses who did not know Grant told KTVU they saw him laying on the ground already restrained when the shooting happened..."




"...KTVU spoke to one young man at the incident who says he got the entire shooting on tape.

He says BART police confiscated that tape, but says the video shows the officer pull his gun and fire two or three seconds later.

At a Thursday afternoon press conference, BART spokesman Allison said the officer's gun went off while police were trying to restrain Grant.

Authorities said they were still investigating whether the gun was fired on purpose or accidentally. Allison did assert that, contrary to the claims of witnesses, Grant was not cuffed when he was shot.

Officials have not released the name of the officer, who was placed on administrative leave. Allison said no arrests were made following the incident but that the shooting was still under investigation."


Tragic. There better be an investigation. This is getting insane.

I just found out about a local artist who got shot by cops last year. He used to show in a place I worked. Tragic and pointless.

I hope we find out more soon.

[CreekDog]

18. BART has no right to confiscate footage of the event

what's up with that?

[Starry Messenger]

20. That is weird, CreekDog.

I wondered about that.

[Gormy Cuss]

21. Yeah, that's a stinker.

On what grounds would BART confiscate a passenger's video of an event?

[Starry Messenger]

23. Oh, I just found this video at Channel 5

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2009/01/02/MNB9152I2Q.DTL&o=2

Bart didn't confiscate the tape, and if there was tape confiscated by the BART police, then BART is not aware of what it might be. That was my read. BART and BART police are two different entities.

[CreekDog]

24. BART police are part of BART

and when i said BART, I meant BART police.

the transit agency, BART is responsible for BART police.

i guess it would be possible that it was taken as evidence, if that witness account is true. that said, if anything was taken as evidence by police, it should be shared and should be acknowledged.

[Starry Messenger]

25. Sorry CreekDog, I wasn't very clear.

I'm not sure if BART is totally responsible for BART police or not. They have areas that overlap greatly, but the BART police are regular police dedicated to BART issues:

http://www.bart.gov/about/police/faq.aspx

I only make the distinction because my boyfriend was a cab driver in Oakland, which has a branch of police dedicated to it, called Taxi Detail. It serves in issues in the functioning of the cab business, but the cab business is not responsible for it.

I might be wrong though. I just wanted to explain where I was coming from.

[CreekDog]

26. it was no big deal. i only said that to clarify that if BART took the footage, it was their police

that did that.

BART is a governmental agency, the special transit district. the BART police are part of the district.

although they are peace officers that can act throughout the state, so can officers of other jurisdictions. so San Mateo police officers work for San Mateo, but they can act outside San Mateo but within California to stop a crime. same with BARt.

but it's little more than a digression at this point.

overall, i'm just really worried that what happened on BART is as bad or worse than what we are hearing in the media coverage. an officer shooting a handcuffed and restrained suspect could likely be murder and if witness accounts are correct --it is murder.

[ellisonz]

13. Just another police murder...

...Welcome to Merika!

[BlooInBloo]

22. Gawd I fucking hate cops. Piece of shit terrorists.