Oakland Mad -- No Arrest in BART Shooting -- NYTimes

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City officials worked Thursday to quell Oakland’s collective anger the day after hundreds of people violently demonstrated downtown to protest last week’s fatal shooting of an unarmed black man by a transit police officer.

As merchants worked Thursday morning shoveling shards of glass outside their damaged storefronts, other residents attended a a transit board hearing to express their frustration over the incident.

On New Year’s Day, Oscar Grant III, 22, was shot in the back while lying on the platform at the Fruitvale station of the Bay Area Rapid Transit District in Oakland. The transit officer responsible, Johannes Mehserle, resigned on Wednesday, but investigators said efforts to interview him about the circumstances of the shooting had been rebuffed by his lawyers and police union leaders.

“The community does not have confidence in BART investigating itself," Desley Brooks, an Oakland City Council member said at the transit board hearing Thursday.

"That was murder and this gentleman needs to be brought to justice,” Amos Brown, a board member of the N.A.A.C.P., said at the meeting. He was referring to Mr. Mehserle, who has not been arrested.

“The worst thing that we could do, the thing that would cause absolute chaos, is if we screwed up this investigation,” BART spokesman Linton Johnson said Thursday. “We are being diligent, we’re completing a thorough investigation. A rush to judgment would mess up the case."

He added: "We need more evidence to make this case rock solid. These things don’t happen overnight. Generally it takes a couple of weeks.”

What began as a peaceful demonstration Wednesday afternoon to protest the shooting turned violent, with demonstrators setting trash cans and cars on fire and smashing store windows and leading to the arrest of more than 100 people that evening. Police in riot gear responded with tear gas and billy clubs.

Jeff Thomason, a spokesman for the Oakland Police Department, said that those arrested were charged with vandalism, unlawful assembly, rioting and assault on a police officer. Two people who were arrested had handguns.

“We understand this is a very sensitive situation, and that people are very upset about this,” Mr. Thomason said Thursday, adding that Oakland Police planned to employ extra officers on the city streets Thursday night, and had been in contact with the California Highway Patrol and the Alameda County Sheriff’s office.

Dereca Blackmon, co-founder of the Coalition Against Police Executions, which organized the rally, presented the BART board with several demands, including asking the state attorney general and the United States attorney’s office to investigate the shooting. She was backed by Keith Carson, of the Alameda County board of supervisors, and local church leaders.

On Wednesday night and Thursday, Mayor Ronald V. Dellums pleaded for calm as anger simmered in the city’s black community.

“We’ve got to have a real investigation that people can have confidence in,” said Mr. Dellums on Wednesday night. “And my sense of it is that part of this reaction is that people have lost confidence.”

Mr. Grant, who had been involved in a scuffle aboard a train after leaving a New Year’s Eve celebration in San Francisco, died at a local hospital several hours after being shot. The bullet, which had passed through his lower back, ricocheted into his lung.

The incident was captured by at least four cellphone cameras held by passengers on a train idling next to the platform. The videos, which have been widely broadcast and streamed online, show Mr. Grant lying face down when Mr. Mehserle, 27, pulls his gun and fires a single shot. Mr. Mehserle looks stunned for a moment, and then handcuffs Mr. Grant with the assistance of another officer.

Thuyen Tran’s family runs a small nail salon 15th Street and Broadway. Mr. Tran, 24, said he was upset that his family’s business had been damaged, but also understood the anger of the protesters.

“It doesn’t make sense, using brutal force,” Mr. Tran said. “There’s no need for five or six officers to be pinning him down.”

John Burris, a lawyer for Mr. Grant’s mother and his live-in girlfriend, said he had asked Tom Orloff, the Alameda County district attorney, to consider filing criminal charges against Mr. Mehserle.

“If you can’t file charges in a case like this,” said Mr. Burris, “I don’t know what kind of case you can file in.”

On Thursday, Mr. Grant’s family and friends attended a news conference conducted by Mr. Burris. "They want the public to know they don’t condone in any way the violence that occurred last night," Mr. Burris said.

“I am begging the citizens not to use violent tactics, not to be angry,” said Wanda Johnson, Mr. Grant’s mother. “You’re hurting people that have nothing to do with the situation. Please stop it, just please stop.”