Police Officer Who Killed Oscar Grant To Be Tried For Murder

Oscar Grant was an African American, 22-year-old father of two who was shot to death by a BART police officer named Johannes Mehserle in the wee hours of January 1, 2009. The killing was caught on video and was a cause celebre earlier this year. The Barbara Jordan/Bayard Rustin Coalition (a Black LGBT organization that MadProfessah is the board president of) organized a candlelight vigil in Liemert Park in support of justice being done for the man who shot a Black man at point blank range in full view of hundreds of other people for no apparent reason.

Today comes word that Mehserle will be tried for murder in the Oscar Grant case and the defense's motion for a change of venue was denied:

After listening to seven days of testimony, Judge C. Don Clay concluded that Mehserle hadn't gotten his stun gun and his service pistol mixed up when he shot Oscar Grant in the back at the Fruitvale Station in Oakland early New Year's Day.

"There's no doubt in my mind," Clay said at the close of the former officer's preliminary hearing in Oakland, "that Mr. Mehserle intended to shoot Oscar Grant with a gun and not a Taser."

The decision set up the first murder trial of a California peace officer for a line-of-duty killing in nearly 15 years. It prompted sobs of relief from Grant's family members, who spoke of having a sense of justice restored.

"This is going to be huge for people of color," Cephus Johnson, Grant's uncle, said outside court. "The community lacks faith in the judicial system when it comes to police officers.

Go and read the entire coverage of the preliminary trial in the San Francisco Chronicle. It looks like there will be many, many people following this case very carefully.