Oscar Grant III was a 22-year-old Black man who was killed in the early morning hours of New Year's Day 2009 by BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle in Oakland, California.

Though initial protests on July 8, 2010, against the jury verdict were peacefully organized, after dark there were incidents of looting, arson, destruction of property, and small riots.

[1] Oakland civil rights attorney John Burris filed a $25 million wrongful death claim against BART on behalf of Grant's family.

[2] The biographical drama film Fruitvale Station (2013), written and directed by Ryan Coogler, portrays the last 24 hours of Grant's life, his killing, and the immediate aftermath.

[4] He worked as a meat cutter at Farmer Joe's Marketplace in Oakland's Dimond District after jobs at several Kentucky Fried Chicken outlets.

A cell phone video broadcast on local television station KTVU on January 23 showed what appeared to be Pirone rushing towards one of the detained men and punching him in the face multiple times, two minutes before the shooting occurred.

[27] Additional footage from a cell phone was presented in court showing Pirone standing over the prone Grant before the shooting and yelling: "Bitch-ass nigger, right?"

[30] The .40 caliber bullet from Mehserle's semi-automatic handgun entered Grant's back, exited through his front side and ricocheted off the concrete platform, puncturing his lung.

[23] Direct evidence of the shooting was documented by video cameras held by passengers on the train idling next to the platform, as police detained Grant and a number of other men suspected of being involved in the disturbance.

On January 23, KTVU aired a cell-phone video which appeared to show a second officer punching Grant in the face prior to the shooting.

"[44] University of San Francisco law professor Robert Talbot said the videos could support a claim of an accidental shooting: "Nothing about his [Mehserle] body looks murderous.

[48] He retained a criminal defense attorney and refused to speak to the authorities, invoking the Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights Act (California Government Code section 3300–3313)[49] and the Fifth Amendment, claiming potential self-incrimination.

On December 18, 2010, it was reported that San Francisco labor arbitrator William Riker ordered the former officer re-instated with full back pay because there was no basis to find that Domenici was not telling the truth.

[63] About an hour later, police gave orders to disperse and fired tear gas, rubber bullets,[66] and other less-lethal weapons and devices at demonstrators.

[77] The riots augmented the perception of crime in Oakland, adding to the previous year's run of takeover robberies, and were a challenge to overcome for greater economic investment.

[79] Dellums noted that people were upset and had "lost faith in the process" because of what he called lack of communication by BART officials and the district attorney's office in the days after Grant was killed.

[33] Mehserle retained Pleasant Hill criminal defense attorney Michael Rains, who previously successfully represented one of the Oakland Riders.

He protested that "Both rulings amount to grave errors under longstanding and never-questioned California authorities" and alleged that they "substantially interfere with Mehserle's federal due process right to defend against the murder charge".

[105] The day before the trial began, Deputy District Attorney David Stein revealed a photo that Grant took of Mehserle with a cell phone camera.

[10] Prosecutors alleged that paperwork, including a blood alcohol test, completed by Mehserle after the shooting showed that he had changed his story about what occurred.

Defense attorney Rains argued that the shooting was accidental and told them not to make "some sort of commentary on the state of relations between the police and the community in this country".

[45][154] Local columnists criticized such language as "inflammatory" and "the exact opposite of the kind of sane leadership we need and expect from our elected officials".

[71][159][164] On January 9, police in riot gear dispersed a crowd of about 100 demonstrators after some of the rioters stopped vehicles and threw trash cans in the street.

[165] A January 14 demonstration briefly turned violent, and police arrested 18 people after rioters smashed car and store windows in Oakland's City Center district.

[170] An estimated 200 protesters gathered at San Francisco's Embarcadero BART station on April 8, 2010, to call for the disbanding of the transit system's police department and the firing of an officer who was on the scene when Grant was shot.

[174] Multiple peaceful gatherings were held throughout Oakland after the verdict was announced, and sporadic conflicts were quelled quickly by the police early in the evening.

[177] The San Francisco Chronicle reported that many of the rioters who were most aggressive in damaging Oakland businesses and property were organized white anarchists wearing black clothing and hoods.

Oakland attorney John Burris filed a $25 million wrongful death claim against BART on behalf of Grant's family (mother, daughter, sister and girlfriend) on January 6, 2009.

[27][180] In February 2009, Burris filed claims for a total of $1.5 million on behalf of five of Grant's friends, whom he says were detained without cause for five hours after the shooting, alleging illegal search and seizure, false arrest, and use of excessive force.

The civil case was partially resolved when BART settled with Grant's daughter for $5.1 million (with accrued interest), according to Burris' law firm.