OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) –  Oakland police say nine people were arrested in a demonstration that followed a bail hearing for former BART Officer Johannes Mehserle on Friday.

Police spokesperson Jeff Thomason reports four juveniles and five adults were arrested for failing to disperse.

After it was announced that the former officer’s bail would be set at $3 million, a group of about 70 marched from the Alameda County Courthouse through downtown Oakland for a few hours. As the march continued, the numbers ballooned to a couple hundred people.

Officials say the window to one SUV was smashed and flash-bang devices were deployed to try and disperse the crowd.

Worried that the protest could escalate into violence like it had a few times before, several businesses in the area boarded up their windows and closed early.

Mehserle returned to the Santa Rita jail in Dublin where KRON 4’s Da Lin says several sheriffs’ deputies in riot gear were posted outside as a precautionary safety measure.

At the hearing, Judge Morris Jacobson says he set Mehserle’s bail so high because he believes the former officer is a flight risk and that he gave an “inconsistent story” about the shooting. He also notes that it appeared as though the former officer wanted to “make up a story to avoid the consequences of his action.”

In a phone interview with KRON 4, the sister-in-law of the shooting victim, Oscar Grant, expressed outrage at the bail decision, “We are not happy with the $3 million bail decision today. $3 million is not nearly enough. There should be no bail for an execution, because that is exactly what that officer did to Oscar. We feel that BART has not done anything right since the beginning of the investigation and $3 million is not nearly enough. We still need everyone’s support right now as this has been very hard on our family.”

News Link:
Click Here to See Court Doc: Mehserle's Motion for Bail (PDF) Defense attorney Michael Rains argued that his client didn’t act with malice when he fatally shot 22-year-old Oscar Grant. Rains says Mehserle may have mistakenly pulled his service pistol instead of stun gun, blaming inexperience by the 27-year-old who passed his Taser user certification test on December 3rd, "The bulk of the discovery, including witness and officer statements, seem to indicate that this young officer, who carried a taser for only a few shifts prior to this event, may have mistakenly deployed his service pistol rather than his taser, thus negating any criminal intent.”

Mehserle has pleaded not guilty to one count of murder. Cell phone videos of the incident show the former officer standing over Grant as he was lying facedown on the Fruitvale train platform. Mehserle fired one shot into the unarmed man’s back. Grant died from the gunshot wound to his torso.

Court documents contain statements from several officers who were on the platform with Mehserle at the time of the shooting. The officers, who had just pulled several men, including Grant, from a BART train after reports of fighting, describe the scene as chaotic and confusing.

According to a statement by Officer Tony Pirone, Mehserle told Grant to stop resisting and put his hands behind his back. Then, according to Pirone’s statement, Mehserle said: “I’m going to taze him, I’m going to taze him. I can’t get his arms. He won’t give me his arms. His hands are going for his waistband.”

Mehserle allegedly told Pirone to move, before firing the shot.

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