The short answer
Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old Black man, was fatally shot by BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle at Oakland's Fruitvale Station in the early hours of January 1, 2009. Mehserle was later convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to two years.
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Suggest coverage for Killing of Oscar GrantOscar Juliuss Grant III, a 22-year-old Black man from Hayward, California, was killed in the early morning hours of New Year's Day 2009 by Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Police Officer Johannes Mehserle at the Fruitvale BART Station in Oakland. Grant and a group of friends were returning from celebrating in San Francisco when BART officers responded to reports of a fight on their train. Officers detained Grant and several other passengers on the platform. BART Officer Anthony Pirone struck and kneed Grant and forced him face down on the platform. Mehserle then drew his sidearm and shot Grant once in the back. Grant was taken to Highland Hospital in Oakland, where he died later that day.
The shooting was recorded by multiple bystanders on cell phones, and the footage was broadcast on local television and uploaded to the internet, drawing widespread public attention. Several hundred thousand people viewed the videos within days. Following release of the footage, protests took place in Oakland, including a January 7, 2009 march that began peacefully at the Fruitvale station but was followed after dark by looting, arson, vandalism, and confrontations with police in riot gear; roughly 120 people were arrested that evening.
On January 12, 2009, Alameda County District Attorney Tom Orloff filed a murder complaint against Mehserle, who had left the Bay Area; he was arrested on January 13 near Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Mehserle waived extradition and pleaded not guilty. On January 30, 2010, prosecutors indicted him on a charge of second-degree murder. The trial was moved to Los Angeles County due to concerns about an impartial jury in Alameda County. Mehserle testified that he believed he was holding his Taser rather than his firearm when he fired. On July 8, 2010, a jury convicted Mehserle of involuntary manslaughter and acquitted him of second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter. Renewed protests followed the verdict, again including some looting and property destruction after dark.
On November 5, 2010, Mehserle was sentenced to two years in prison, with credit for time served, after the judge overturned a firearm-use enhancement. He was released on parole on June 13, 2011, having served roughly eleven months. His 2012 appeal to the California Court of Appeal was unsuccessful, and the California Supreme Court declined further review later that year.
Civil rights attorney John Burris filed a $25 million wrongful-death claim against BART on Grant's family's behalf. BART settled with Grant's daughter and mother for a combined $2.8 million in 2011 and separately settled claims brought by several of Grant's friends. A related internal BART investigation found that Officer Anthony Pirone had struck and kneed Grant, contributing to injuries documented in his autopsy; Pirone and Officer Marysol Domenici were later terminated by BART, with Domenici eventually reinstated after labor arbitration. The case is widely cited as an early catalyst for the Black Lives Matter movement and was later dramatized in the 2013 film "Fruitvale Station."
Oscar Grant is shot by BART Officer Johannes Mehserle at Fruitvale Station in Oakland and dies later that day at Highland Hospital.
Grant's funeral is held at Palma Ceia Baptist Church in Hayward; a protest march later that day is followed by rioting in downtown Oakland.
Alameda County District Attorney Tom Orloff files a murder complaint against Mehserle.
Mehserle is arrested near Lake Tahoe, Nevada, and waives extradition.
Mehserle pleads not guilty at arraignment.
Alameda County prosecutors indict Mehserle on a charge of second-degree murder.
Mehserle's criminal trial begins in Los Angeles County.
Jury finds Mehserle guilty of involuntary manslaughter and not guilty of second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter; protests and rioting follow the verdict.
Mehserle is sentenced to two years in prison, minus time served.
Mehserle is released on parole after serving about eleven months.
Mehserle appeals his conviction to the First District Court of Appeal.
California Supreme Court unanimously denies review of the appellate ruling upholding Mehserle's conviction.
Victims first. Every legal label is set from public records and court outcomes, not from the prose.
22-year-old Black man fatally shot by BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle on January 1, 2009.[3]
BART Police Officer convicted of involuntary manslaughter for shooting Oscar Grant; acquitted of second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter; sentenced to two years.[3]
From the record
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Credit: Alameda County Sheriff's Department (ACSD)Public domainSourceSOLVEDListenOikos University, Airport Business Park, Oakland, California · 2010s
On April 2, 2012, a gunman opened fire inside a nursing classroom at Oikos University in Oakland, California, killing seven people and wounding three others. One L. Goh, a former student, was later convicted and sentenced to consecutive life terms without parole.
Image recordEditorial useSourceSOLVEDListen74th Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard, East Oakland, California · 2000s
On March 21, 2009, Lovelle Mixon, a convicted felon wanted on a no-bail parole violation warrant and identified as the assailant, fatally shot two Oakland police motorcycle officers during a traffic stop, then fled to his sister's apartment where he fatally shot two SWAT sergeants before being killed by return fire.
Image recordEditorial useSourceSOLVEDListenDowntown Oakland, California · 2000s
Oakland Post editor-in-chief Chauncey Bailey was shot to death on a downtown Oakland street on August 2, 2007, while investigating the finances of Your Black Muslim Bakery. Bakery employee Devaughndre Broussard confessed as the triggerman, and in 2011 bakery owner Yusuf Bey IV and associate Antoine Mackey were convicted of ordering and participating in the murder.
Danziger Bridge, New Orleans, Louisiana · 2005
On September 4, 2005, six days after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans Police Department officers shot six unarmed African-American civilians on the Danziger Bridge, killing James Brissette, 17, and Ronald Madison, a mentally disabled 40-year-old. Officers falsified reports to justify the shootings; five officers were convicted in 2011, had those convictions vacated in 2013 over prosecutorial misconduct, and ultimately pleaded guilty in 2016.
UNSOLVEDListenKokrajhar, Sonitpur, and Chirang districts, Assam, India · 2014
In December 2014, militants of the NDFB(S) faction killed around 65 unarmed Adivasi villagers in Assam's Kokrajhar, Sonitpur, and Chirang districts, triggering protests, retaliatory violence, and a major government security operation.
Credit: Family/Instagram photograph, widely distributed in press coverageEditorial useSourceSOLVEDListenMoscow, Idaho · 2022
Four University of Idaho students—Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, and Xana Kernodle—were fatally stabbed inside an off-campus house in Moscow, Idaho, in the early morning hours of November 13, 2022. Bryan Kohberger, a criminology PhD student at nearby Washington State University, was arrested that December and pleaded guilty in 2025, receiving four consecutive life sentences.
