A new video has been posted to the internet, originally at the Oakland Cop Watch blog. This video just so happens to clearly show the weapon at the time it was discharged, at the time of the shooting of Oscar Grant. It also shows the shooter's reaction and the reaction of the other police officers around him.
There has been a lot of speculation as to exactly what happened as other videos have not been nearly as clear as this one. That speculation is put to rest with this video.
As you can see in the video, the victim is calmly sitting against the wall having a conversation with the police. He is then grabbed and thrown face down to the floor. An officer kneels on his back as another officer appears to the control the front of the victims body. The victim is clearly not struggling with the officers. The officer at the front stands up just as the other officer reaches for his weapon. The officer then points his weapon at the victim, stands up and fires the weapon into the victim's back as the victim clearly lies motionless face down on the ground.
After viewing the above footage I am calling for charges to be filed immediately. I wouldnt exactly call it murder, but clearly manslaughter. People have been killed in far more accidental situations and been charged with more. In this case we have the benefit of literally dozens of witnesses and multiple video. If there is no conviction, its going to be LA all over again. This time in one of the country's most progressive cities.
Additional coverage can be found at SfGate: Bart Shooting Captured on Tape and Indymedia.
What kind of training have these police officers received that they would respond to someone not struggling with such force. An officer should never pull his weapon unless the situation requires it. This situation didnt even come close to requiring it.
After showing the video above to a handful of friends, a few are of the opinion that if they were armed and saw that shooting happen in front of them, they would have pulled their guns and started shooting at the cops. And it would have been justified self defense and defense of others. While we all know what the result of that would be, those cops are lucky that they were in San Francisco which has a fairly peaceful and progressive, and unarmed, populace. In many other cities the results would have been different. Take for example Greece.
I am appalled and horrified that our police forces, tasked with protecting and serving the public, feel that it is necessary to use deadly force simply to gain compliance of even compliant individuals. The culprit is in the militiarization of our police forces where rule by authoritarian power is indoctrinated deep into their minds and thoroughly permeates the culture.
The City of San Francisco and the BART Police Force must act immediately as the longer this drags on, the more this will appear as a murder and cover up. Today is 5 days since this has happened and, according to SFGate the officer has still not been interviewed by Internal Affairs or an investigator. This is unnacceptable. BART Officer has yet to give account in shooting
Additional Update: SfGate has identified the officer as Johannes Mehserle, a 2 year veteran of the BART police force.