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Ex-BART officer Johannes Mehserle

Johannes Mehserle, who’s charged with murder for killing Oscar Grant, told a Los Angeles County jury Friday morning that he mistakenly drew his gun instead of his Taser.

The former BART police officer shot and killed an unarmed Oscar Grant at the Fruitvale Bart station on Jan. 1, 2009. Grant was lying face down when Mehserle shot him in the back.

“I didn’t think I had my gun,” Mehserle testified under questioning by his attorney Michael Rains. “I remember the pop wasn’t very loud, it wasn’t like a gun shot. I remember wondering what went wrong with the Taser? I thought the Taser had malfunctioned.”

It was the first time Mehserle talked publicly about the shooting.

“I remember looking at my right hand and seeing my gun,” he said, and then suddenly he was overcome by emotion. Breaking down in tears, Mehserle sobbed uncontrollably on the witness stand.

Mehserle’s family, seated in the courtroom pews, also began to cry.

“I remember Mr. Grant saying, ‘You shot me,’” he said choking back tears.

Wanda Johnson, the mother of Oscar Grant, rose from her seat inside the courtroom and ran out of the court.

Timothy Killings, a Laney College student, rose from his seat in the courtroom gallery and yelled, “You should save the fucking tears.”

Judge Robert Perry ordered bailiffs to arrest Killings for contempt of court. The judge then ordered a recess. When the spectators came back from the break, Perry threatened to clear his courtroom if there were additional outbursts.

“You have a job to do here … and you cannot let an emotional outburst from someone in the audience influence you in any way,” Perry warned the jury afterward.

Mehserle testified that when he arrived at the Fruitvale station, Grant and his friend Jackie Bryson were upset with Tony Pirone. The prosecution centered much of its case around the ex-BART officer, one of the first to arrive on the scene. Pirone was captured on video calling Grant a “bitch ass nigger” and some witnesses testified that he was hostile to Grant and his friends.

“I told [Grant] calm down, we’d figure it out,” Mehserle said.

Pirone ordered Mehserle to arrest Grant and Bryson for obstructing a police officer. Mehserle didn’t think Pirone had made the right call but chose not to question his colleague.

“I just followed ... the order,” he said.

Mehserle’s argument is that Grant was resisting arrest and ignoring commands. Mehserle testified that when he saw Grant reach into his pocket, he thought he might be reaching for a gun. Grant was face down on the train platform.

To subdue Grant, Mehserle said he reached for his Taser. But instead he drew his pistol.

Afterwards, Mehserle realized that he fired a bullet, and Grant lay bleeding on the station platform. Mehserle applied pressure on the wound to stop the bleeding.

“I remember him starting to close his eyes … I was trying to keep his eyes open,” he said. “I was scared … this wasn’t supposed to happen.”

As back-up officers arrived, Mehserle was taken to BART headquarters at Lake Merritt Station, where he remained silent and waited for his attorney.