Cop in transit shooting under guard

OAKLAND, Calif., Jan. 7 (UPI) -- A police officer involved in a fatal New Year's Day shooting at an Oakland, Calif., rapid transit station is under police protection, sources say.

The Bay Area Rapid Transit officer, who was shown on at least two video tapes apparently firing his gun into the back of an unarmed man as the man was lying on the floor of the BART station, has been moved twice after threats were made against his life, unnamed sources told KTVU-TV, Oakland, Wednesday.

The officer, identified in a civil lawsuit as Johannes Mehserle, has not yet spoken to BART investigators, the report said. Mehserle is the subject of a $25 million claim that he and fellow officers violated the civil rights of Oscar Grant III, 22, of Hayward, Calif., who died in the incident.

"The videotape that we see where the person is being shot in the back while he is on the ground and not committing a danger to the officer, that's criminal conduct," attorney John Burris, representing Grant's mother, told KTVU. "To me, that's murder. That's second-degree murder."

Mehserle's attorney did not return calls for comment from KTVU.