Nearly 10 years to the day of his passing, Oscar Grant III’s family is aiming to build a tangible legacy in his honor. A request to rename Fruitvale Station in Oakland, Calif., the location where Grant was fatally shot by a police officer on Jan. 1, 2009, has been made. At 22, Grant was killed by a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) officer while he was handcuffed and face down on the train’s platform. The officers were responding to a fight on a crowded train and apprehended Grant and other riders.
“It would be an atonement, it would be part of BART saying yes this happened here, we vow that it won’t happen again and we vow to work with the communities and ensure that all people are treated equally,” Wanda Johnson, Grant’s mother, said.
According to KGO-TV, BART officials have declared the family’s plea unlikely, not based upon the reason of the request, but rather that BART policy requires all stations’ names to align with its geographical position. The Oakland transit system will instead install a mural honoring the late father. Currently, in the planning stages, the family also requested a side street at Fruitvale be named after their fallen family member.
Killed in the blink of an eye, Grant’s case made him one of the many faces of police brutality. Cellphone cameras caught officers handcuff an unarmed Grant, who was later shot in the back. He died shortly after in a California hospital.
READ MORE: ‘Fruitvale Station’: Michael B. Jordan On the Many Layers of Oscar Grant