Oscar Grant's fatal shooting by police in 2009

Brut America

More than a decade ago, another young Black man was killed after a Taser-gun mix-up.   This was the fatal shooting of Oscar Grant at Fruitvale Station.

Transcript

00:00Never did I expect to get a call in the morning to say that my son had been shot.

00:30I wake up every night thinking, what if I wouldn't have asked my son and instructed

00:46my son to get on board.

00:55Fortunately for justice sake, it happened in 2009, in the age of advanced technology

01:01and communications, where the entire world was able to see first-hand.

01:05I didn't know the young man myself, but how this crime happened, it could be me, it could

01:17be my brother, it could be my sister, it could be any of us out here.

01:27The words that he said still rings in my ear, and that is, you shot me, I have a four-year-old

01:33daughter, you shot me.

01:38There's no way to call that involuntary manslaughter, because there was no threat to the officer.

01:49And I feel like even if he was going to tase this person, he could have tased them in the

01:53leg, could have tased them in the arm.

01:55He was aiming for like the back of the kid's head.

02:06I remember 2009, sitting in my apartment on the computer, and being on Facebook and

02:11seeing this video pop up on my wall, and watching it, and watching it again, and watching it

02:15again, and just feeling a different emotion every time, upset, frustrated, angry, helpless.

02:33My son's head was smashed against the wall, and he was kicked, and he was punched, and

02:43the officer, Peroni, still walks around free today.

03:00This reminds me of Oscar Grant, at the train, at the Fruitvale in Oakland, California, where

03:24he was told to lay on his chest with his hands behind his back in the prone position

03:30as the officer accidentally mistaken to shoot him with a gun instead of tasing him.

03:38There was no need to even tase him.

03:43Dante Wright, just like his last name Wright, he should still be here.

03:49It's a time for change, and that time is now.

Category

Transcript

Recommended