LOS ANGELES, June 25 (UPI) -- A former police officer on trial for a fatal shooting at an Oakland, Calif., commuter train station wept as he testified in his own defense, observers said.
Lawyers for former Bay Area Rapid Transit officer Johannes Mehserle, 28, have argued Mehserle mistook his handgun for a stun gun in the shooting of Oscar Grant III, 22, as the officer restrained the victim face down on the station platform, the Los Angeles Times reported.
"I didn't think I had my gun," Mehserle told the jury in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom Friday. "I remember the pop. It wasn't very loud. It wasn't like a gunshot, and I remember wondering what went wrong with the Taser.
"I remember looking to my right side and seeing my gun in my right hand," a tearful Mehserle said. "I didn't know what to think. I just thought it shouldn't have been there."
On Thursday, Mehserle had testified he had little training with the stun gun but admitted he had been warned of the dangers of confusing it with his handgun, the newspaper said.
Mehserle, who resigned shortly after the New Year's Day 2009 shooting, has not denied he shot Grant but says it was an accident.
His trial on first-degree murder charges was moved to Los Angeles from Oakland because of pre-trial publicity in the Bay Area.
Mehserle and several other officers were restraining Grant and several other men after responding to reports of a fight at the station, the Times reported.
