As New Year’s Eve revellers crammed into the trains of BART — the San Francisco Bay Area’s local rail system — at around 2 a.m. on January 1st, little did they know they would witness one of their fellow passengers be shot down by the gun of a BART police officer and not make it home to his family that morning.

22 year-old Oscar Grant of Oakland was reportedly shot and killed by an unidentified BART officer, after officers broke up a fight on the train platform:

Video footage taken by passengers, first shown by KTVU television, shows officers forcing Grant to the ground and trying to hold him down. The officer who shot Grant appears to try to put cuffs on him before drawing his weapon and firing. In the video, Grant appears to struggle with the officers, though it is unclear exactly what he was doing.

Burris said a single bullet went through Grant’s lower back, hit the ground and ricocheted through his upper body. Grant died at Highland Hospital in Oakland several hours later.

Among other things, BART police are looking into the possibility that the officer who shot Grant thought he was pulling the trigger of a Taser stun gun, according to a person familiar with the investigation.

A testament to the power of so-called citizen journalism, two amateur cell phone videos taken by other passengers are shedding some light as to what occurred. BART claimed that no security video of incident was available, and that’s when fellow passengers stepped in with their own material (see raw footage here or complete report here), which the Grant family’s attorney said will aid in the investigation.

This incident has rocked the Bay Area and has citizens calling for a thorough investigation into what actually occurred in the lead up to Oscar’s death. Meanwhile, Grant’s family has filed a $25 million claim against BART.

Via / SF Gate

Image via TKCS on Flickr