Police Brace For BART Officer’s Jail Release

A former Bay Area transit officer convicted in Los Angeles of fatally shooting an unarmed black man on an Oakland train station will be released from custody on Monday.

Johannes Mehserle, 29, was sentenced in November to two years in prison for shooting Oscar Grant on New Year’s Day 2009 at the Fruitvale BART station. He has been in custody since his conviction July 8, 2010.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert J. Perry ruled today that with time-served and good-conduct credits, Mehserle must be released Monday.

News of Mehserle’s possible release had already reached Grant’s relatives, who told Bay Area media outlets they had been notified by law enforcement officials.

“We knew it was coming one day, but as it approached, there were more sleepless nights,” Grant’s uncle, Cephus Johnson, told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Grant’s relatives and supporters were expected to be in Los Angeles Monday to protest Mehserle’s release from the Men’s Central Jail.

Sheriff’s Department spokesman Steve Whitmore declined to provide details of Mehserle’s release.

The case — which inflamed racial tensions in the Bay Area — was moved to the downtown Los Angeles courthouse because of extensive pre-trial publicity in northern California.

Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, rather than the murder charge sought by prosecutors. During his trial, the white former officer testified that he inadvertently grabbed his gun instead of his Taser stun weapon while trying to subdue Grant.

Mehserle told jurors that he wound up firing one shot.

“I remember the pop,” the ex-transit officer said. “It wasn’t very loud. It wasn’t like a gunshot — and I remember thinking the (Taser) had malfunctioned.”

Mehserle testified that he looked down and “saw I had my gun in my hand” and that “it shouldn’t have been there.”