Defrosting Cold Cases

Nearly two months after they were ordered to surrender their Tasers, BART police will be issued the controversial weapons again after being re-trained on the weapon and adapting new protocol.

Acting BART Police Chief Daschel Butler said that pending training, the officers would be given Tasers sometime later this week. Training includes watching a 15-minute DVD on BART’s updated policies for carrying Tasers and learning to carry the stun gun on their weak, non-shooting side, as opposed to their strong side. Also, all officers who carry the Tasers will receive holsters. The transit police officers were told in mid-April to surrender their Tasers following an incident involving a BART police sergeant inappropriately discharging his weapon.

Taser-use by BART officers is also the focal point of Johannes Mehserle’s defense in the New Year’s Day 2009 fatal shooting of Oscar Grant III, who was killed while unarmed and restrained on a BART platform. Mehserle, whose trial begins this week, has claimed he thought he had pulled out his Taser and not his handgun, and fired in an attempt to subdue Grant.

A public review of the officers’ actions in the Grant shooting was highly critical of the agency’s use and training involving Tasers. The BART police force was first armed with Tasers in December 2008, just a month before Grant was shot. 

The article is here.

Categories: Miscellaneous

Tags: BART Police, California, Police, Taser guns, Victim