Update (5 p.m. EST): A Los Angeles judge sentenced a 28-year-old former Oakland, Calif.-area transit policeman to two years in prison for the shooting death of an unarmed passenger he killed while trying to subdue him in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day 2009.
Johanes Mehserle had faced a 14-year prison term in the death of Oscar Grant, 28, who the two-year veteran shot with what he testified he thought was his stun gun, but turned out to be his service firearm.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Perry threw out a gun conviction and gave Mehserle the lightest sentence possible, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. He was acquited of the harsher charges of murder and voluntary manslaughter in June, but found guilty of involuntary manslaughter after a year-long trial whose venue was changed from to seek a fair trial for the officer.
Federal prosecutors are deciding whether to pursue a case against Mehserle, and Grant’s six-year-old daughter, Tatiana was awarded a $1.5 million settlement in the case.
Police say they are prepared for any unrest in the aftermath of the sentencing, but they do not anticipate any significant violence. Local community leaders have also gone through months of training in an effort to respond to potential uprisings, despite racial tensions that have swelled since the shootings.
In the incident, Mehserle, 28, had came to a BART station after reports of a fight on one of the trains. Mehserle, who is white, had been attempting to subdue and arrest 22-year-old Oscar Grant, who is black. Mehserle testified Grant was resisting arrest, but when he drew his weapon and fired it, he thought he was using his stun gun. However, cellphone video that has gone viral since the incident shows Mehserle shooting the unarmed Grant while cooperating with police.
After the conviction, some looting arose after peaceful protests but Oakland was spared the type of damage Los Angeles saw during its 1992 unrest. After the sentencing, Grant’s mother Wanda Johnson left the courtroom saying “nothing, he got nothing.”