Police officer apologizes for shooting

OAKLAND, Calif., July 10 (UPI) -- Johannes Mehserle, the police officer convicted of manslaughter for shooting a young unarmed man in Oakland, Calif., has released a letter of apology.

Michael Rains, Mehserle's lawyer, said Friday his client wrote the letter while the jury was deliberating, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Jurors decided on a verdict of involuntary manslaughter late Thursday.

Oscar Grant III died after Mehserle, then a police officer with Bay Area Rapid Transit, shot him in the back as he lay on the platform of a train station on Jan. 1, 2009. During the trial, Mehserle testified he thought he was holding his Taser and only realized it was his gun after he fired the fatal shot.

"For now, and forever I will live, breathe, sleep and not sleep with the memory of Mr. Grant screaming 'You shot me' and me putting my hands on the bullet wound, thinking the pressure would help while I kept telling him 'You'll be OK,'" Mehserle wrote.

Cephus Johnson, Grant's uncle, said the apology might have meant something the day after the shooting. Now, he said, it amounts to a "convict pleading for mercy."

The verdict spawned protests by those who consider it too lenient and some turned to vandalizing and looting Oakland stores. Police said about 100 businesses had windows broken and many were looted.