No-Cal, Psycho Cop Arrested
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bentstrider at 01.14.09 - 3:29 am
Ex-Oakland transit officer is arrested in Nevada
By TERRY COLLINS
Associated Press Writer
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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The former Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer who fatally shot an unarmed man on an Oakland train platform was arrested in Nevada 12 days after the shooting.
A Douglas County jail staffer said that 27-year-old Johannes Mehserle was in custody Tuesday night under a fugitive warrant issued from California. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the arrest had not been announced.
Karen Boyd, a spokeswoman for Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, confirmed the arrest and said the mayor's office had been informed of it earlier Tuesday night.
Alameda County District Attorney Tom Orloff was expected to announce details of the charges on Wednesday.
Witnesses say Mehserle fired into the back of 22-year-old Oscar Grant while the man was lying facedown on a train platform at a BART station in Oakland. Grant and others had been pulled off a train after reports of fighting, as New Year's Eve revelers were shuttling home after midnight.
The shooting was captured on several cell phone cameras and widely viewed on the Internet.
John Burris, the attorney for Grant's family, said he talked to Grant's mother, Wanda Johnson, on Tuesday night and she was delighted with the news.
"However it does not bring her son back," Burris said. "But she is happy and pleased that an arrest has occurred."
Grant's family has also filed a $25 million legal claim against BART.
A message left late Tuesday night at the office of Mehserle's attorney, Christopher Miller, was not immediately returned.
The shooting has inflamed long-running tensions between law enforcement authorities and many African-American residents in Oakland. Hundreds of protesters have taken to the streets calling for the prosecution of Mehserle, with one rally last Wednesday spiraling into violence and resulting in more than 100 arrests and dozens of businesses damaged.
About 1,000 people were expected at another protest on Wednesday to call on Orloff to file criminal charges.
Dereca Blackmon, the co-founder of the Coalition Against Police Execution, which is organizing Wednesday's protest, said she was pleased Mehserle was arrested but still wanted to know more details.
"We're disappointed that it took him feeling the state in order for the law to take some action," she said. "Honestly this situation brings more questions than answers. Why was he fleeing?"
Douglas County is 15 miles south of Carson City in northwestern Nevada and includes Lake Tahoe and Carson Valley.
Mehserle refused to talk to BART investigators before resigning his position last week. The transit authority passed on details of its internal investigation to Orloff's office on Monday. The case also is being investigated by the Oakland Police Department.
State Attorney General Jerry Brown has assigned a prosecutor to monitor the case, and the U.S. Department of Justice has dispatched mediators to help avert violent protests such as one in Oakland last week.
BART board member Carole Ward Allen said she was pleased to hear the news about the arrest.
"I want to know why he did it," she said. "We've heard from everybody else but him. While I can't speak for the entire BART board, we want to make this process as transparent as possible."
The San Francisco Chronicle first reported the arrest.
Taken off of the Victorville Daily Press website.
My feelings for this former officer are now gone.
Shows how much of a man this ingrate is.
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