{"id":442975,"date":"2026-08-25T11:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T11:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/442975\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T11:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T11:58:09","slug":"17-years-after-oscar-grants-killing-his-uncle-joins-bart-police-oversight-board","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/442975\/","title":{"rendered":"17 years after Oscar Grant\u2019s killing, his uncle joins BART police oversight board"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the early morning hours of New Year\u2019s Day 2009, Cephus Johnson texted his nephew Oscar Grant, who was waiting at BART\u2019s Fruitvale station. Moments later, BART Police Office Johannes Mehserle shot the 22-year-old Black man<\/a> in the back.<\/p>\n

\u201cUncle loves you. God loves you,\u201d Johnson\u2019s text<\/a> read that morning. \u201cHappy New Year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grant\u2019s killing<\/a> helped spur BART to create an independent system of civilian police oversight<\/a>. Seventeen years later, Johnson has been appointed to the BART Police Civilian Review Board, giving him a formal role in reviewing misconduct findings, police policies and recommendations for officer discipline.<\/p>\n

Johnson said he sees the appointment as a way to protect his grandchildren and future great-grandchildren.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause if I fail to stand today, it\u2019d be their demise tomorrow,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n

After reviewing cellphone videos<\/a>, investigators hired by BART concluded that Pirone pushed Grant against a wall, struck him in the head and kneed him in the face. Later, as officers tried to handcuff Grant, Pirone and Mehserle placed him facedown on the platform, where Pirone pinned his neck with his knees. Moments later, Mehserle stood, drew his gun and shot Grant in the back.<\/p>\n

Grant\u2019s death became one of the first major U.S. police killings in which cellphone footage went viral, allowing the public to see the shooting for itself.<\/p>\n

The videos fueled public outrage and days of protests in Oakland, including marches from Fruitvale station into downtown. Johnson, now widely known as \u201cUncle Bobby,\u201d said his nephew\u2019s killing drew him into activism.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only were we impacted, but the community was upset because they visualized it,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cSeeing the video, seeing that he was laying face down, he wasn\u2019t resisting, he wasn\u2019t getting up to run, and then an officer shoots him in the back and you see that on video. He murdered Oscar and he should be held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n

From grief to resolve, Johnson took up a new mission: He was going to make sure that what happened to his nephew would not happen again.<\/p>\n

\"ProtestersProtesters shout their message outside the Alameda County District Attorney’s office during a rally in protest of the killing of Oscar Grant III in downtown Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, January 14, 2009. (Anda Chu\/Staff)\u00a0<\/p>\n

With Grant\u2019s mother overwhelmed by grief, Johnson became the family\u2019s de facto spokesperson, he said. He attended every protest, memorial and event for Grant he could, defending his nephew\u2019s legacy and demanding accountability for the officers involved in his killing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe community embraced us, stood with us, cried with us, went back to court with us,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cIt was the community that gave me a sense of hope that maybe something can be done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pirone was never charged in Grant\u2019s killing despite an internal investigation that showed he used aggressive and unreasonable force, including striking Grant in the head and kneeing him. BART police fired Pirone in 2010.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors charged Mehserle with murder, but a Los Angeles jury convicted him of involuntary manslaughter after the trial was moved out of Alameda County. A Los Angeles County judge sentenced him to two years in prison in 2010. He was released after serving 11 months.<\/p>\n

Johnson called the conviction \u201chistory, not a victory,\u201d saying Mehserle\u2019s acquittal on second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter charges meant accountability had not been achieved for his nephew.<\/p>\n

Three days after Mehserle was sentenced, two Oakland police officers shot and killed another unarmed Black man, Derrick Jones, near Bancroft Avenue and Trask Street. Johnson visited Jones\u2019 family as they began asking the same question he had after Grant\u2019s death: How could they get the officers charged?<\/p>\n

That was when Johnson realized he needed to turn protest into purpose, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was so much bigger than Oscar,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cThis was much more of a systemic problem than just one individual family being impacted by this violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere had to be more than just protest,\u201d he continued. \u201cBut once that door opens up, what then?\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson came to define his pursuit of justice through what he calls the \u201cFour Ps\u201d: protest, purpose, policy and prevention.<\/p>\n

In 2010, he lobbied California legislators to pass Assembly Bill 1586, which created BART\u2019s Office of the Independent Police Auditor and provided the framework for independent oversight of the transit agency\u2019s police department.<\/p>\n

Four years later, Johnson founded the Love Not Blood Campaign and California Families United 4 Justice, which he said have connected more than 1,500 families affected by police violence nationwide with financial and legal support.<\/p>\n

Through those networks, Johnson advocated for a series of measures that changed police practices across California.<\/p>\n

Assembly Bill 71 mandated statewide reporting of shootings and serious or deadly force involving officers. AB 953 required agencies to collect demographic data on police stops. AB 392 tightened California\u2019s standard for police use of deadly force. Senate Bill 2 created a process to decertify officers for serious misconduct.<\/p>\n

That work came full circle Aug. 13, when the BART Board of Directors unanimously selected Johnson to serve as the Civilian Review Board\u2019s public-at-large representative.<\/p>\n

In that role, Johnson can receive misconduct complaints, review findings and disciplinary recommendations from the independent police auditor and participate in recommending corrective action. The 11-member board also reviews police policies, procedures and training, and advises BART leadership.<\/p>\n

After years of demanding change from outside the system, Johnson will now help shape accountability from within it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about me or us, or even today; it\u2019s about what their future can look like,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cIt\u2019s about true, systemic change in a way that they can have real freedom, justice, and equality.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the early morning hours of New Year\u2019s Day 2009, Cephus Johnson texted his nephew Oscar Grant, who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[389,3767,184,764,7,8,409,138,332,394,2955,418,181,205,100,143,145,144,62956,408,13,14262,1967],"class_list":["post-442975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-alameda-county","tag-bart","tag-bay-area","tag-berkeley","tag-california","tag-california-news","tag-city-politics","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-east-bay","tag-fremont","tag-hayward","tag-history","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-politics","tag-news","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-oscar-grant","tag-police-accountability","tag-politics","tag-race-race-relations","tag-transportation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}