Former Bay Area Rapid Transit Police officer Johannes Mehserle, convicted of killing unarmed passenger Oscar Grant, was released after serving only 11 months of a two-year minimal term sentence.
According to the officer, the execution style death was an accident.
Mehserle claimed Grant, who was 22 at the time, was resisting arrest. So Mehserle attempted to taze him.
However, witnesses who were on the platform and on the BART train recorded the incident. Cell phone camera footage appears to show that even though Grant was under the control of at least three officers and was face down and appeared handcuffed, Mehserle shot him in the back.
Mehserle told the court he mistook his firearm for the tazer.
Other nearby officers did not immediately tend to the needs of Grant who laid on the ground bleeding to death.
The BART officer was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for the shooting, and was released from Los Angeles County jail on June 13 due to credit for time served and good behavior. He is out on parole.
At his release, protesters across the state rallied, demanding justice be served.
http://www.ourweekly.com/los-angeles/protesters-decry-officer%E2%80%99s-release
