Woman Fatally Shot in East Oakland Was Aunt of Oscar Grant

A 46-year-old woman who was fatally shot in East Oakland on Tuesday evening was the aunt of Oscar Grant III, an unarmed 22-year-old Hayward man who was killed by a BART police officer in 2009, according to an attorney for Grant's father.

A woman police said was killed in the 600 block of Douglas Avenue at about 6:45 p.m. Tuesday is Lanedria Grant, according to attorney Waukeen McCoy, who is representing Oscar Grant Jr. in a civil rights lawsuit against former BART officer Johannes Mehserle in federal court in San Francisco.
 
McCoy said Lanedria was the sister of Oscar Grant Jr. and the aunt of Oscar Grant III, who was shot and killed by Mehserle on the platform of the Fruitvale BART station in Oakland shortly after 2 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2009.
 
Mehserle has said he intended to fire his Taser stun gun to subdue Grant while he and other officers were responding to reports of a fight on a BART train, but accidentally drew and fired his service revolver instead.
 
Oscar Grant Jr., who has been in prison since before his son was born because he's serving a life sentence for a first-degree murder conviction, is seeking unspecified damages from Mehserle for the wrongful death of his son and denying their familial relationship.
 
Lanedria Grant was one of two people who were shot in the incident on Tuesday, according to Oakland police. Grant was found lying on the ground and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
 
A male victim took himself to a hospital with gunshot wounds that weren't life-threatening, according to police. McCoy said Lanedria Grant was one of three sisters of Oscar Grant Jr. and was the mother of five children and the grandmother of nine.

McCoy said Grant had planned to come to the civil rights trial on Wednesday, which would have been her first time attending the trial. McCoy said Oscar Grant Jr. is taking his sister's death "really hard."
 
"It's a tragedy. The family's been going through a lot lately. It's been hard for him to concentrate now knowing that his sister has been killed," McCoy said.
 
But McCoy said Grant Jr. will not be asking for a postponement of the civil trial, which is nearing its conclusion. The final testimony is expected Friday morning and closing arguments are expected either Friday afternoon or Monday morning.           

—By Bay City News