Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley announced on Monday (October 5), that prosecutors are reopening the investigation into the 2009 death of Oscar Grant at the hands of Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) officers. The incident was depicted in the 2013 film Fruitvale Station, with Michael B. Jordan playing Oscar Grant.
O'Malley released a statement, which read, "I have assigned a team of lawyers to look back into the circumstances that caused the death of Oscar Grant. We will evaluate the evidence and the law, including the applicable law at the time and the statute of limitations and make a determination."
Grant's mother, Wanda Johnson-Morris, spoke at a press conference on Monday, where she called for one of the two officers involved in the incident to be charged. She stated, "If all men are created equal, then we too should get the justice that we deserve."
Former officer Johannes Mehserle was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in July 2010 for shooting Grant. The other officer, Anthony Pirone, was fired following Grant's death and he was expected to be charged after testifying in Mehserle's trial. However, he has yet to receive any charges in the case.
A 10-year-old report from a third-party law firm that was hired to conduct an internal affairs investigation into the shooting death of Grant was released last year. It stated that Pirone "started a cascade of events that ultimately led to the shooting of Grant," and added that he lied to put his own "actions and conduct in a more favorable light." The report also states that Pirone hit Grant and called him the n-word during the incident. Pirone claimed that Grant kicked him in the groin and hit Mehserle, which was proven to be false when video footage of the incident was released.
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