Grant served two state prison terms for various felonies including a conviction for drug dealing. In 2007 he was sentenced to 16 months in state prison for fleeing “from a traffic stop while armed with a loaded pistol”. During that incident, near his Hayward home, San Leandro police shot him with a Taser to subdue him after he threw the pistol into the air and ran. The arresting officers testified that even after being Tased, Grant “continued to resist efforts of the officers to handcuff him”.
Grant was released from prison on September 23, 2008, and according to the attorney for Grant’s family, John Burris, “had been doing well in recent months”.
Johannes Sebastian Mehserle (born circa 1982) was raised in the Bay Area from the age of 4. He graduated in the class of 2000 from New Technology High School in Napa, California. He attended college in Napa, in Monterey, and at Sonoma State University, where he majored in business, and he developed an interest in police work through a friend who was a police officer. He went on to graduate from Napa Valley College Police Academy in 2006, where he placed in the top five of his class academically and placed well physically. Mehserle joined the Bay Area Rapid Transit Police in March 2007. Prior to the shooting, he had never been the subject of a sustained complaint from the agency’s internal affairs department nor had any criminal arrests of any kind.
In a few weeks, i will probably ride BART for the 2nd time in my life. I know which of these two i would rather have in the car with me.
And FYI, it wouldn’t be the sainted jailbird! LOL,,,