"Fruitvale Station": Recreating a tragic loss of a life
(CBS News) A new movie based on a true story takes a look at a controversial shooting four years ago that still has echoes today. Erin Moriarty of "48 Hours" has the story behind the film:
Every day, 16,000 riders run through this Bay Area Rapid Transit, or BART, station in Oakland, Calif.
The sign says "Fruitvale." But there's another name that hangs heavy over the platform: Oscar Grant III.
Wanda Johnson, Grant's mother, showed Moriarty a favorite photo of her "baby boy": "His smile speaks to everybody. His smile speaks to me."
In the early morning hours of New Year's Day 2009, 22-year-old Grant and some friends were on the BART train returning from celebrating in San Francisco. There was a report of a fight, and when the train pulled into the Fruitvale Station, BART police started pulling Oscar and his friends off the train.
Other passengers pulled out their cell phones, and recorded video of what happened next: "In the video I see that there's a officer out with a Taser walking back and forth, cussing, telling people to get off the eff-ing train," Johnson recalled. "And then he grabs one of the boys and takes him off the train. He escorts a couple more off the train and he throws them down on the ground."
One of them is an unarmed Oscar Grant. A BART officer is on top of Grant, trying to handcuff him.
"And as he has his knee in Oscar's neck, Mehserle, he pulls out his gun and he shoots him," Johnson said. "And everybody [goes], 'Why would you shoot him?' "
Transit officer Johannes Mehserle shot Grant point-blank in the back.
Oscar Grant died in the hospital seven hours later.
A scene recreating the fatal shooting of Oscar Grant by BART Police for the film "Fruitvale Station."
/ The Weinstein CompanyActor Michael B. Jordan saw