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A former Northern California transit officer cried on the witness stand Friday while describing how he shot and killed an unarmed man on a train station platform more than five years ago. Johannes Mehserle testified in federal court in San Francisco that he meant to use his Taser rather than his gun to subdue Oscar Grant on New Year's Day in 2009. Mehserle was testifying in a civil rights lawsuit filed by Grant's father against Mehserle, the Bay Area Rapid Transit agency and other defendants.

Harvey Weinstein’s big Oscar hopeful this summer is “Fruitvale Station,” a true story about the fatal Oakland shooting of an unarmed young black man that arrived with almost miraculous timing. Hitting theaters just as the jurors in the George Zimmerman trial were deliberating. the film won the two top prizes at the Sundance Film Festival and has become a cause celebre among critics. Activists are seizing the opportunity to promote the movie, which calls for justice and implies that nothing like it has occurred yet, though the man who shot and killed Oscar Grant has already served time in prison...

<p>I’m a 10-year regular at BART’s Fruitvale Station, and this morning noticed a movie poster for “Fruitvale Station” near the turnstiles inside the station — not far from the tragic events that inspired the film.</p> <p>“Fruitvale Station” was written and directed by Oakland’s Ryan Coogler, and covers the last day of Oscar Grant’s life before he was fatally shot by a BART police officer on New Year’s Day 2009. It won the Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award, and is set for wide release this Friday.</p>

A class action lawsuit was filed against the Oakland Police Department and the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office on Monday alleging that they violated the rights of 150 people who were arrested after former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle was sentenced last Nov. 5. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court only hours after Mesherle, 29, was released from the Los Angeles County Men’s Central Jail at about 12:30 a.m. Mehserle shot and killed Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old Hayward man who was unarmed, after Mehserle and other officers responded to reports that there was a fight on a train. Mehserle...

Former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle was released from a Los Angeles jail early today after completing his time for involuntary manslaughter for fatally shooting an unarmed passenger on New Year's Day 2009. E-mail and phone notifications made at 12:01 a.m. today said Mehserle had been released, and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's online inmate locator also said he had been released as of that time. Officials have declined to discuss specifics about Mehserle's release. Mehserle, 29, was sentenced to two years for shooting Oscar Grant in the back while the 22-year-old Hayward man lay face down on the...

More than 150 people, many carrying signs critical of police, are marching down International Boulevard in Oakland en route to a rally protesting the prison release of the officer who killed Hayward resident Oscar Grant two years ago. The crowd has been chanting ``We are all Oscar Grant,'' and ``The people united will never be defeated.'' They are also carrying a mock casket to symbolize Grant's death at the hands of former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle, 29. The protest has been peaceful so far and the crowd was heeding the words of Keith Muhammad of the Nation of Islam....

OAKLAND -- An arbitrator today overturned BART's firing of Marysol Domenici, a police officer who had been accused of lying to investigators and an Alameda County judge about another officer's killing of unarmed train rider Oscar Grant. Although BART never accused Domenici of using excessive force, she became a focus of some of the community outrage stirred by the case because she helped detain Grant before he was shot by former Officer Johannes Mehserle. A jury convicted Mehserle in July of involuntary manslaughter for the Jan. 1, 2009, killing at BART's Fruitvale Station in Oakland. He was sentenced to two...

(11-05) 19:18 PDT OAKLAND -- A couple of hundred protesters angered by the two-year sentence handed down for former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle surged into the streets of downtown Oakland tonight, marching past Lake Merritt and smashing car windows as police stood by in case severe violence breaks out. The crowd started walking south on 14th Street at about 6:25 p.m. Several in the crowd said they were headed to the Fruitvale BART station, which is about three miles from City Hall. The station is where Mehserle shot Oscar Grant, an unarmed train rider, early Jan. 1, 2009. At...

Oakland officials said they are ready if things get unruly Friday night in the wake of what some protesters have called the lenient sentencing of a former BART police officer for the fatal shooting of an unarmed man. Johannes Mehserle, 28, was sentenced Friday by a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge to two years in prison for the shooting of Oscar J. Grant III on an Oakland train platform in the early morning hours of New Year's Day 2009. Mehserle, who is white, contended that he mistakenly used his firearm instead of an electric Taser weapon when he shot...

8:45 AM: As you already know, the city of Oakland's hunkering down, waiting to see how Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Robert Perry sentences BART cop Johannes Mehserle in his manslaughter conviction for the killing of Oscar Grant Fruitvale station in Oakland on Jan. 1, 2009. The hearing just began, and we will be streaming KRON4's coverage live, above, and will be updating frequently. If you live or work in Oakland, please do let us know how the city's reacting. According to reports, most Oakland stores are open for business as usual, as are institutions like UC's Oakland offices,...

(07-09) 13:56 PDT OAKLAND -- The attorney for Johannes Mehserle, the former BART police officer convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Oscar Grant, released a handwritten letter today that Mehserle composed Sunday - four days before a Los Angeles jury came back with its verdict in the case. The full text of the letter released by defense attorney Michael Rains follows: Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/09/BAQB1EC3T3.DTL&tsp=1#ixzz0tDspBOYL

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -- Oakland police say people have broken into an athletic store near the city's downtown as hundreds of people protest the verdict in the case of a former transit officer. Johannes Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter on Thursday in Los Angeles in the videotaped shooting death of an unarmed black man on an Oakland train platform.

(07-08) 14:59 PDT LOS ANGELES -- Jurors have reached a verdict in the murder trial of former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle, who shot and killed unarmed train passenger Oscar Grant on Jan. 1, 2009. The verdict is scheduled to be read in Judge Robert Perry's downtown Los Angeles courtroom at about 4 p.m. today, said a source with knowledge of the matter. Jurors were given four options during deliberations. They could convict Mehserle, 28, of second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter or involuntary manslaughter, or they could acquit him. The panel began deliberations Friday, but had to start from scratch Wednesday...

OAKLAND — The murder trial against former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle will be moved to another county, a judge declared Friday. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Morris Jacobson informed attorneys late Thursday that the case against Mehserle, in which he is accused of murder in the shooting of an unarmed Oscar Grant III early New Year's Day, should occur in another county because the 27-year-old cannot receive a fair trial in Alameda County. Jacobson's ruling was made less than a week after a hearing on a change of venue in the case concluded with prosecutors arguing that Alameda County...

Nearly two months after Oscar Grant III was shot to death by a BART officer, protesters threatened to disrupt service at the Fruitvale Station where Grant died the morning of Jan. 1. The small group gathered at the station Thursday to announce that they would shut it down March 5 during rush hour unless officials met their ultimatum for increased accountability and other demands organizers have made since early January. About 15 people walked from the station's plaza upstairs to the platform where Grant was shot.They placed flowers inside a chalk outline meant to represent where Grant's body lay after...

Slideshow: Oakland Train Station Shooting OAKLAND, Calif. – The transit officer who shot and killed an unarmed man may have mistakenly pulled his service pistol instead of a stun gun, his lawyer said Friday.

OAKLAND -- Former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle declared that he was going to fire his Taser stun gun, not his pistol, just before he shot an unarmed man he was trying to arrest early New Year's Day at an Oakland station, his attorney says. Attorney Michael Rains wrote in a court document that a second BART officer, Tony Pirone, reported hearing Mehserle say just before shooting Oscar Grant, "I'm going to tase him, I'm going to tase him." Afterward, Mehserle said he thought Grant had been reaching for a gun, Rains wrote. Rains gave the account in a motion...

Seconds after BART police officer Johannes Mehserle shot and killed Oscar Grant, police immediately began confiscating cell phones containing videos that have yet to see the light of day. In fact, the only videos that have been seen by the public were filmed by people who managed to leave the scene before police confronted them.In one instance, police chased after Karina Vargas after she stepped on the train, banging on the window after the doors closed and demanding her to turn over the camera. The train sped away with Vargas still holding her camera.Her video, which did not show the...

Napa, CA (AP) -- A bomb squad destroyed another suspicious package at the Napa home of the parents of the former Bay Area transit officer arrested for shooting an unarmed man at a BART station. . . . It was the second time that week authorities went to the home belonging to Johannes Mehserle's parents. On Wednesday, a bomb squad destroyed two packages left on their porch.

OAKLAND — Johannes Mehserle, the BART police officer who shot and killed an unarmed man New Year's Day, has been arrested, a high-ranking Oakland city official confirmed late Tuesday. It was not clear what charges Mehserle could face. David Chai, the chief of staff for Mayor Ron Dellums, who confirmed the arrest, said he knew no further details. Mehserle's killing of Oscar Grant III has led to massive public outcry, particularly since video of the shooting surfaced.