COMMUNITY MEMBERS gathered Thursday for the 17th annual Oscar Grant vigil in Oakland\u2019s Fruitvale neighborhood.<\/p>\n
Grant, 22, was shot dead on New Year\u2019s Day 2009 by a BART police officer on a platform at the Fruitvale BART station, while another officer pinned him to the ground with his knee.<\/p>\n
Videos captured by onlookers were publicized on television and the internet, precipitating widespread protests demanding police accountability<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n The officer who shot Grant, Johannes Mehserle, was tried for murder but was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter after he claimed that he intended to use his taser and not his service weapon. He was sentenced to two years in prison but was released in 2011 after serving 11 months.<\/p>\n Anthony Pirone, the officer who pinned Grant down, was not charged, and while his conduct was \u201coffensive and unacceptable,\u201d there wasn\u2019t enough evidence to charge him with murder, according to a 2021 report<\/a> by then Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O\u2019Malley.<\/p>\n At Thursday\u2019s vigil, community members led prayers, sang songs, performed prayer dances, and spoken word poetry to pay tribute to Grant and other victims of police brutality like George Floyd<\/a> and Breonna Taylor<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe can never get justice when they steal our loved ones,\u201d said Cat Brooks, executive director of the Anti-Police Terror Project and one of the speakers at the vigil. \u201cWhat we demand is accountability, and what we refuse to do is forget.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n