SAN FRANCISCO — The family of a 22-year-old man shot to death by a transit police officer on New Year's Day urged Oakland residents Thursday to remain calm and deplored the violence that erupted during a protest over the shooting a day earlier.
The city bristled with anger and sorrow as store owners cleaned up the debris from the vandalism during Wednesday night's protest and officials announced that the Oakland Police Department would join in the investigation of Oscar J. Grant III's death.
Demonstrators disrupted a Bay Area Rapid Transit district board meeting to demand justice. After several hours of anguished testimony, board members apologized Thursday to the family for the shooting death and agreed to consider creating a board subcommittee to oversee BART police procedures.
But it was Wanda Johnson, Grant's mother, who spoke in the strongest terms about the aftermath of her son's death and that protest that resulted in more than 100 arrests, scores of damaged buildings and a number of torched cars.
"I am begging the citizens to not use violent tactics, not to be angry," Johnson said during a news conference a day after burying her son. "Oscar would not want to see all the violence going on."
"You're hurting people who have nothing to do with the situation. You're vandalizing their cars, their properties, you're breaking their windows," said the Hayward woman, who was flanked by family members and their attorney. "Please stop it. . . . Just, please."
Grant was returning home to the East Bay on a BART train in the early hours of Jan. 1, after celebrating New Year's Eve in San Francisco. A fight broke out between two groups of riders on the train about 2 a.m.
BART police met the train at Oakland's Fruitvale station and ordered passengers onto the platform. Grainy cellphone videos broadcast on television and viewed thousands of times on the Internet show Grant lying facedown on the platform.
BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle stands over the young man. He reaches for his weapon and shoots Grant point-blank in the back. Grant was unarmed.
The family has filed a $25-million wrongful-death claim against BART and Mehserle that could result in a lawsuit.
Grant, who has a 4-year-old daughter, was buried Wednesday morning.
A peaceful protest began about 3 p.m. Wednesday at the Fruitvale station, near where Grant died. It turned violent after demonstrators left the station and began marching toward downtown Oakland. Police in riot gear tried to control the crowd, which grew to 200 to 300 people.
