Grant's family pleads for peace - San Jose Mercury News
09.01.09
The department's role will to be to aide the Alameda County District Attorney's office, which previously had been working exclusively with BART police, in its investigation.
"We will review what has been done and we will develop our own witnesses as well," said Oakland police Chief Wayne Tucker. "That's what's intended now."
Alameda County District Attorney Tom Orloff said he expected a case to be "totally prepared" in about two weeks.
"I know people are unhappy with that," he said. "I know there's a lot of emotion. I have to sit back and look at this as objectively as I can with all the facts that are available and make the decision — not only whether or not he should be charged, but what offense he should he charged with ... and it's not as simple as most people think."
The rioting, which police estimate caused at least $150,000 in damage, broke out late Wednesday after an originally peaceful protest about Grant's killing moved from the Fruitvale BART station to the downtown area. Splinter groups — many not related to the original protest — fanned out, breaking store windows, setting fire to at least five cars, including an Oakland police patrol car, and smashing windshields of parked cars, leaving them caved in like crushed eggshells.
Source: San Jose Mercury News, USA