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January 14, 2009

Ex-Officer Arrested in Oakland Shooting of Unarmed Black Passenger
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And in California, Oakland city officials have confirmed a white former
transit officer has been arrested in the New Year’s shooting of an
unarmed African American passenger. The former officer, Johannes
Mehserle, resigned last week and fled the state. He was arrested as a
fugitive in Nevada. Cell phone videos show Mehserle pulling out a gun
and shooting twenty-two-year-old Oscar Grant in the back while he was
lying face down on the ground on a subway platform. Grant worked as a
butcher at an Oakland grocery store and was the father of a
four-year-old daughter.



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