Youtube Video Shows Cop Shooting Innocent Man Oscar Grant
17:03 - Monday 05 January 2009 - In Categories US News, US Videos
An angry crowd marched through the streets of San Francisco last night protesting against shooting of Oscar Grant, who was killed by police on New Year’s Day.
Grant, 22, was among a group of four men who’d been taken off a train following a fight.
Other passengers filmed the police as they detained the group.
Their footage shows Grant complying with police and lying face down on the platform, before being shot in the back by officer Johannes Mehserle.
Although police attempted to confiscate footage from onlookers and initially claimed there was no official CCTV coverage of the incident, several versions of the shooting have found their way onto YouTube.
The killing has caused outrage in America and sparked riots in Oakland similar to those seen after the brutal beating of Rodney King by LA Police in 1991.
Karina Vargas, who witnessed the shooting and captured footage on her mobile phone said: ‘This video is for everyone to see. I want to show it to his family. It is for everyone to see that this was not right.’
Mehserle, 27, has refused to give an official account of the incident, and was initially suspended on paid leave, but resigned from the force earlier this week.
He was charged with murder yesterday.
