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California Prosecutors to Reopen Investigation into 2009 Killing of Oscar Grant

HeadlineOct 06, 2020

In California, prosecutors said Monday they are reopening an investigation into the 2009 killing of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old unarmed Black man, by a white transit officer in Oakland. The officer who shot Grant, Johannes Mehserle, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter, but another officer present at the scene, Anthony Pirone, was terminated and never charged, even though a report revealed he repeatedly lied to investigators and attacked Grant, starting “a cascade of events that ultimately led to the shooting.” Oscar Grant’s family called for the case to be reopened. His mother, Rev. Wanda Johnson, spoke Monday in front of the train station where her son was killed.

Rev. Wanda Johnson: “If it’s going to be that our judicial system continues to lie and continues to not honor their word, then we will continue to be out here and remind the world of how our judicial system is continuing to fail people of color.”

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