Fatal BART Shooting Leads to $50 Million Lawsuit

By Evan Mix

Published on March 07, 2009

On Monday, the family of a man who was fatally shot by a transit system police officer in the San Francisco Bay Area filed a lawsuit seeking $50 million for civil rights violations and wrongful death. The suit, seeking twice the amount set in its initial filing, names former police officer and alleged shooter Johannes Mehserle, the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police chief, and other officers who were present for the incident.

Early on New Year's Day, Oscar Grant III was shot and killed during an arrest on a BART light rail platform. A bystander recorded the incident using a cell phone video camera. The video appears to show Mehserle, currently facing murder charges in connection with the incident, drawing his gun and shooting Grant in the back as another officer holds the man down.

A court filing by Mehserle's attorney claims the officer intended to draw and use his Taser, but accidentally grabbed his gun instead. The video has circulated widely on the Internet and on television news, sparking protests in the Bay Area and elsewhere.

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