LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A woman who recorded video of an unarmed black man's shooting by a former transit officer said Friday that she didn't see the man resist or fight with police before the gun was fired.
Testifying in Los Angeles Superior Court, Karina Vargas said she watched as officers tried to control a group of young men, including Oscar Grant, on a Bay Area Rapid Transit platform in Oakland on New Year's Day 2009.
Vargas said she stood about 10 to 15 feet away and recorded Officer Johannes Mehserle as he tried to handcuff Grant. She said she heard Grant say, "Don't tase me, man," a reference to a Taser stun gun.
"To me, it looked like he was cooperating from where I was standing," Vargas testified.
Defense attorney Michael Rains has said his client struggled to handcuff Grant for 12 seconds before the shooting. When Mehserle was unable to handcuff Grant, he told fellow BART officer Tony Pirone, "I'm going to tase him," Rains said.
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Videos recorded by several people aboard the train that chronicle the events leading up to the shooting are being used by attorneys on both sides to help prove their case.
During opening arguments Thursday, prosecutors said the tapes show Mehserle, who is white, losing his calm amid the chaos, while a defense attorney argued Mehserle made a tragic mistake by pulling out his gun instead of a Taser.
Mehserle, 28, is accused of killing Grant, 22, while he was lying on the ground. Mehserle has pleaded not guilty to murder. He resigned shortly after the shooting.
The trial is tinged with racial overtones and being watched closely by the Oakland community, where tensions boiled over into violence after the shooting.
Vargas said she pulled out her camera when she saw Pirone yelling to get Grant and a friend off the train while several others were being detained nearby.
"It was the aggressiveness that compelled me to record," she said.
