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Hearing in transit killing

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Associated Press

Several witnesses to the fatal train station shooting of an unarmed man in Oakland testified Tuesday that the officer accused of murder looked surprised and shocked after he pulled the trigger.

College student Tommy Cross Jr., who digitally recorded the New Year’s Day killing, said former Bay Area Rapid Transit Officer Johannes Mehserle “looked up and said ‘Oh, my God! Oh, my God!’ ” after the shot rang out.

“I looked directly at him,” Cross said while testifying for the prosecution Tuesday at a hearing to determine whether Mehserle will stand trial for the murder of Oscar Grant.

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Grant, 22, was shot on the platform after transit police were called to the Fruitvale station over reports of fighting on the train.

Mehserle has pleaded not guilty and, according to his attorney, intended to grab his stun gun when he accidentally pulled his pistol.

The preliminary hearing began Monday in Alameda County Superior Court. Prosecutors finished presenting their evidence, including witness videos, on Tuesday.

Among those who testified Tuesday was a longtime friend of Grant who told the packed courtroom that moments before Grant was shot he had wrestled with another man he knew onboard the train.

Jamil Dewar, 16, described the incident as a scuffle, not a fight, that lasted a few minutes. Dewar helped break it up just before the train stopped.

Dewar said that after he and another friend got off the train, transit Officer Anthony Pirone angrily came toward them. Dewar said he jumped back on the train as the officer pointed a Taser at passengers.

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“He said, ‘Get out of the train! I know who you are,’ ” Dewar recounted. “He was saying, ‘Get the . . . off the train!’ ”

Dewar said he started recording the scene with his cellphone camera when he saw that police had Grant and others up against a platform wall.

“It was craziness over there. It wasn’t a regular day,” Dewar said. “So I started recording.”

Dewar’s was one of five witness videos shown over the first two days of the hearing, which could run through next week.

Cross, like several other witnesses, said he felt that the officers acted inappropriately and unprofessionally in handling Grant and his friends. But under cross-examination by the defense, they did not single out Mehserle as the most aggressive officer there.

Cross said he and his friends and others on the train were in shock after Grant was shot.

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