OAKLAND, California (AFP) — Angry residents on Thursday vented their frustration over the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black man, a day after violent protests in Oakland.
Community members in the San Francisco suburb of Oakland met directors of the city's Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system to voice concern over the New Year's Day killing of Oscar Grant, 22, who was shot dead by a police officer responding to reports of fighting on the subway.
The shooting was captured on video and has been widely broadcast on television and on the Internet.
Amos Brown, a senior minister at the Third Baptist church in San Francisco and member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) called on on BART leaders to recognize the killing as "murder."
"We need (to) embrace a reverence and respect for every human life," Brown was quoted as saying on The Oakland Tribune's website.
"BART in tandem should join with this audience in saying that was murder; don't explain it away as a mistake."
Grant's family has filed a 25-million-dollar wrongful death claim against BART. The police officer who shot Grant resigned on Wednesday.
Protests grew violent on Wednesday after around 200 protesters headed toward downtown Oakland and began wreaking havoc.
They blocked streets and smashed store windows, then bashed a police cruiser and about two dozen other cars. They set a garbage bin on fire. Police estimated the damage at 150,000 dollars.
Police in riot gear responded with tear gas, finally breaking up the crowd late at night and arresting more than 100 people on charges including inciting riot, assaulting police and vandalism.
Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums said the Oakland Police Department would conduct its own investigation of the fatal shooting.
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