Transit cop may have pulled wrong gun(update)

[JIDinPhilly]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090131/...ation_shooting


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.

Defense attorney Michael Rains made the argument during a bail hearing for 27-year-old Johannes Mehserle. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Morris Jacobson later set bail at $3 million.

Jacobson said he set the high amount in part because he considered Mehserle a flight risk after the former officer fled to Nevada during the initial investigation.

Mehserle was being held Friday at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin. It was not immediately clear if he would be able to post bail.

Mehserle has pleaded not guilty to one count of murder in the death of 22-year-old Oscar Grant, who was killed early New Year's Day. Cell phone videos of the incident, widely viewed on the Internet, showed the officer standing over Grant as he was lying facedown on an Oakland train platform and firing one shot into the man's back.

Grant died of a gunshot wound to his torso.

Rains argued Friday that witness accounts indicate that Mehserle meant to draw his Taser but instead pulled his pistol. The lawyer blamed inexperience by the young officer, who joined the department in March 2007 and passed his Taser user certification test on Dec. 3.

"The bulk of the discovery, including witness and officer statements, seem to indicate that this young officer, who carried a taser for only a few shifts prior to this event, may have mistakenly deployed his service pistol rather than his taser, thus negating any criminal intent," Rains wrote in court documents filed in support of the bail motion.

He told the judge that prosecutors should have charged his client with involuntary manslaughter, not murder.

The court documents contain statements and reports from several officers who were on the platform with Mehserle at the time of the shooting.

The officers — who had just pulled several men, including Grant, from a Bay Area Rapid Transit train after reports of fighting — described the scene as chaotic and confusing.

According to a statement from Officer Tony Pirone, Mehserle told Grant to stop resisting and put his hands behind his back. Then, according to Pirone's statement, Mehserle said: "I'm going to taze him, I'm going to taze him. I can't get his arms. He won't give me his arms. His hands are going for his waistband."

Pirone said he didn't know if Grant was armed, but said Mehserle told him he had believed Grant may have had a weapon.

But Deputy District Attorney John Creighton questioned the defense's account at Friday's hearing, asking why Mehserle said after the shooting that he thought Grant was armed rather than saying he thought he was firing his Taser.

The judge also noted inconsistencies in the defendant's account of the shooting.

"He has the willingness to add to the story, to change the story, to make up something that's not true to avoid consequences," said Jacobson, who imposed a temporary gag order in the case until the next hearing, on Feb. 10.

John Burris, an attorney for Grant's family, said relatives were "very, very disappointed."

"In a case of this magnitude, it was certainly our hope that no bail was set," he said.

___

[shefearsnothing]

Of COURSE he's going to say he was going for his taser. Was there ever any doubt? Now I wonder if the other officer will actually get on the stand and lie for him? Let's hope not. The other detainees were def. sitting close enough to have heard that if he really said it too. It's not like he'd have been whispering it in the heat of the moment. Watching the video it doesn't look like he's saying anything at all....never mind where the guy's hands really were (behind his back already). This guy is just going to make it worse for himself by lying on top of everything else. If he had said his intention was to use his taser and I mean had said it out loud more then once to his partner at the moment before he actually shot the guy then he'd have NEVER reacted the way he did to the whole situation. None of that makes sense. This guy is as dumb as a box of rocks. JMO. I don't know who he thinks he's fooling.

[ar15jules]

If you watch any or have been to any Taser training, before deploying the Taser, the words, "Taser...Taser...Taser..." are shouted. This is done for a reason.

you can hear it here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWaCD6jIH5Q

...and here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNFzI...eature=related

I could find more but don't have the time. That is said for a reason.
Jules

[o1dakota440]

+1 i couldn't have said it better my self

[Big Mike]

Of COURSE he's going to say he was going for his taser. Was there ever any doubt? Now I wonder if the other officer will actually get on the stand and lie for him? Let's hope not. The other detainees were def. sitting close enough to have heard that if he really said it too. It's not like he'd have been whispering it in the heat of the moment. Watching the video it doesn't look like he's saying anything at all....never mind where the guy's hands really were (behind his back already). This guy is just going to make it worse for himself by lying on top of everything else. If he had said his intention was to use his taser and I mean had said it out loud more then once to his partner at the moment before he actually shot the guy then he'd have NEVER reacted the way he did to the whole situation. None of that makes sense. This guy is as dumb as a box of rocks. JMO. I don't know who he thinks he's fooling.

Looks like somebody made up their mind, let's just hangum all and let God sort them out! Of course only if u believe in GOD. I think I'll wait for the evidence. I would also want those to testify to tell the TRUTH, not ASSume they would LIE>

[shefearsnothing]

ar15jules, I didn't say there was no reason to shout it. I am just saying if you watched all the videos the guy was not yelling anything before he shot that guy. For him to be stupid enough to try to say he did with all those witnesses is crazy!

(although I don't believe from watching the videos that he had any legit reason to use a taser....)

Big Mike, you must have missed ALL my other posts on this case in the previous threads. Your sarcasm is just....oh well I have no words for it. Yes, I do believe he is guilty here. I believe he was wrong and should be charged, get his day in court and I hope they find him guilty. Murder? No. Manslaughter? Yep. I watched countless videos of this shooting over and over again and I admit I wasn't there so I may still be missing something but that guy (the victim) was NOT reaching for any gun, there is in fact a video that shows still shots where you can see he WAS handcuffed, and the officer wasn't shouting ANYTHING. So yeah, I think he's counting on a fellow officer to lie for him because that's the only way he's going to get away with the story he has made up for his defense.

not ASSume they would

Sorry, are you trying to say something to me here without really saying it?

[normanvin]

the guy was already subdued. Why pull the taser at that point.

[customloaded]

I truly thank all of you who are so dead set in stone that this former officer is guilty.

I question how many of you have gone through a police academy, perhaps years of college, and put on the uniform, badge, and gun.

quarterbacking is all well fine and dandy watching it from a computer screen but that doesn't mean what your seeing is 100% of the truth!

Lets take a basic criminal law class real fast. Mens Rea. Means, the criminal had to have a guilty mind to commit the criminal act. I highly doubt the officer fully intended to shoot a man who is laying on his stomach, we call that the prone position.

I am not an investigator on the case or involved in anyway but what the defense attorney is saying is very very possible.

Ahh, loud verbal commands, Yelling as someone says, does not mean your arms have to be flailing about like a five year old throwing a temper tamtrum in the ladies section of walmart or they have to be heaving from breathing hard.

I don't care if the man was handcuffed or not, I've known officers who were killed by handcuffed criminals. I've known officer who have gotten their butts kicked by handcuffed criminals using their legs. Ever watch COPS, the TV show, and see police officers all over the country shackle or hog tie people? Why? Because they are using their feet as weapons.

I cheap cell phone video with no audio only shows certain aspects to the story and situation. It doesn't record the vile filth being sprewed by the criminal. You can't hear the criminal telling the officer's he's going to kil them or kick them, or cause bodily injury to the officers. There are plenty of reasons why the officer would have tazed the criminal.

It is obvious to me that the DA and Judge in this case are prejudiced against officers. Do you think every person remembers exactly everything that happens in a matter of seconds? Is it not normal to recall details after the stress and totality of the circumstances subsides?

One thing wrong with our system, we are not judged our peers as evidenced by the biased shown in this thread for most of you have no idea what the job as POLICE OFFICER entails.

[shefearsnothing]

You can't hear the criminal telling the officer's he's going to kil them or kick them, or cause bodily injury to the officers. There are plenty of reasons why the officer would have tazed the criminal.

and if the situation REALLY warranted any aggressive action then you'd have seen some by the other officer as well. Seriously. You can say the video quality is not "all that" all you want but video doesn't LIE and if it were you or me or any other average joe and there was the same video footage of the same basic scenario minus the badges and blue GUESS WHAT!? We might as well SKIP COURT cause our asses would be going DIRECTLY TO JAIL. If nothing else the guy is guilty of involuntary manslaughter.

[MartinBrody]

This is not murder, should be involuntary manslaughter or whatever the law is out there. Since the DA charged him with murder is it all or nothing now on that charge? Can he still be found guilty of involuntary manslaughter?