A really messed up situation in Oakland. Group of young men fighting on BART. BART officers break up the fight, take the men off the BART and begin handcuffing them. As one of them, Oscar Grant, is on the ground and being subdued by what looks like 3 officers, one of them gets up, draws his gun and shoots Oscar in the back – while he’s pinned down on the ground by the other officers! Oscar later dies.
Video shot on cell phones here
It’s not an easy thing to watch, knowing you’re seeing a young man about to be killed and then the shooting is actually captured on the phone video. You don’t see much other than the officer stand and draw his weapon. You can hear the shot and see the other officers who were subduing Oscar jump back.
I mean…it’s not clear whether Oscar was one of the men fighting or not. But even if he was, there was no need for this. The cops were on the scene in force. They had subdued and handcuffed many other young men already. Oscar appeared to be willing to cooperate (his hands are up in the air at one point before the cops get him face down). And then in an instant, his life is gone.
There’s something drastically wrong with that.