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By Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross
San Francisco Chronicle
OAKLAND, Calif. — Johannes Mehserle, the BART police officer who fatally shot a man on the Fruitvale Station platform in Oakland early New Year’s Day, is being kept under wraps and moved from place to place after receiving a number of death threats, BART spokesman Linton Johnson confirmed Tuesday night.
Mehserle, 27, a two-year veteran of the BART police force, shot and killed 22-year-old Oscar Grant of Hayward as Grant lay face-down on the station platform following a fight between two groups on a train.
While the nature of the threats hasn’t been revealed, Johnson said at least one of the threats was made to Mehserle’s family. As a result, he has been moved twice.
Mehserle is described as “devastated” over the shooting, but has yet to give a statement to investigators. Johnson said the delay was caused when Mehserle’s attorney showed up at the station within two hours of the shooting and invoked the officer’s right to “retain counsel and not say anything.”
Probes by BART police and the Alameda County district attorney were further hampered because investigators were off over the holiday weekend.
On Friday, Mehserle’s girlfriend had a baby - and then, to further complicate matters, BART passengers’ videos of the Fruitvale Station incident began showing up on the airwaves. BART lawyers and brass have been in scramble mode ever since.
Johnson said Mehserle’s attorney “has not made it easy to schedule him for an interview, but hopefully he’ll be coming in very soon.”
Odds are: If Mehserle is charged with a crime in Grant’s shooting, it will be a first.
No one we talked with - from the district attorney’s office to lawyers who work either side of police shootings - could remember a case in the last 20 years in which an on-duty officer had been charged in a fatal shooting in Alameda County.
“By and large, police officers have been reacting to some type of situation before they shoot someone that usually provides a legal justification,” said District Attorney Tom Orloff, who has seen dozens of police shooting cases during his nearly four-decade career as a prosecutor.
Orloff, whose office would ultimately decide whether Mehserle should be charged with anything, hastened to point out that many details about the Fruitvale Station shooting remain unknown and that it is far too early to know whether the case will enter the criminal arena.
The most recent controversial police shooting in Alameda County happened July 25, when Oakland police Officer Hector Jimenez shot a drunken-driving suspect in the back as the man ran from an early morning traffic stop in the Fruitvale District.
Police said Jimenez shot 27-year-old Mack “Jody” Woodfox III because he thought Woodfox was reaching into his waistband for a gun, although no gun was found. Jimenez gave the same reason for taking part in the fatal shooting New Year’s Eve 2007 of another man, Andrew Moppin, who, like Woodfox, turned out to be unarmed.
Police and a deputy from the district attorney’s office interviewed Jimenez after the Woodfox shooting, then went out to the scene at night and re-enacted the incident as the officer related it.
The result - although technically the case is still pending, no charges have been filed.
John Burris, the Grant family’s attorney, has sued Oakland police on behalf of the Woodfox family, filing a $25 million civil rights suit in federal court.
Burris filed a legal claim in the BART case Tuesday, a precursor to what he says will be another $25 million suit.
“Police don’t get charged because D.A.'s and police work together, so they sort of get a pass,” Burris said.
“That’s why you have lawyers like myself. If you didn’t, nothing would be done.”
Copyright 2009 San Francisco Chronicle