The family of Douglas Zerby, a 35-year-old Long Beach man shot and killed by Long Beach Police in Belmont Shore last man, will join the Los Angeles Coalition for Justice for Oscar Grant at a press conference at the Federal Department of Justice offices in Downtown Los Angeles at 4 p.m. Tuesday.
The press conference is being called in honor of the second anniversary of the fatal shooting of Grant III, who was shot in the back by a transit officer as Grant lay handcuffed and face down on the ground of a BART train platform in Oakland.
The officer who shot Grant, Johannes Mehserle, was fired from his job and convicted last year of involuntary manslaughter. He was sentenced in November to two years in state prison, the minimum sentence allowed, which sparked outrage among some members of the Bay Area community.
Many Oakland community leaders cited the fatal shooting as proof that racial tension remains between law enforcement and black residents.
The prosecution argued that Mehserle intentionally killed Grant after he was subdued because Mehserle was angry Grant initially resisted arrest.
Mehserle's defense attorney said it was a tragic error brought about by extreme stress when Mehserle reached for his Taser and instead pulled his gun and fired.
Zerby's family -- which will join with the coalition for Grant -- also charges that the Long Beach Police Department was negligent when officers shot Zerby multiple times as he sat on a second-story front porch cross-legged and playing with a hose nozzle.
Police were called to the location by a resident who said he saw an intoxicated man behind his house, and in front of some apartments on the same property, and that the man had a small gun.
Police Department officials said the nozzle in Zerby's hand, which is described by garden centers and home improvement stores as a "pistol-grip" nozzle, looked like a gun and that officers were forced to open fire before confronting Zerby and asking him to drop the item.
Zerby's family contends police had plenty of time to talk to Zerby as they called in back up units, K-9 patrols and the police department's helicopter to lock down the neighborhood. They insist that Zerby's extreme intoxication, he was described as barely able to walk by one neighbor and the 911 caller said he bobbing up and down, meant he posed no threat to the officers who had gathered around Zerby on the ground and in nearby properties.
Press conference organizers said they will demand U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder file federal charges of civil rights violations in the Grant case and take action in the deaths of several other unarmed residents shot by police in California, including Zerby, Derrick Jones, James Davis and Manuel Jamines Xum.
The press conference is being called in honor of the second anniversary of the fatal shooting of Grant III, who was shot in the back by a transit officer as Grant lay handcuffed and face down on the ground of a BART train platform in Oakland.
The officer who shot Grant, Johannes Mehserle, was fired from his job and convicted last year of involuntary manslaughter. He was sentenced in November to two years in state prison, the minimum sentence allowed, which sparked outrage among some members of the Bay Area community.
Many Oakland community leaders cited the fatal shooting as proof that racial tension remains between law enforcement and black residents.
The prosecution argued that Mehserle intentionally killed Grant after he was subdued because Mehserle was angry Grant initially resisted arrest.
Mehserle's defense attorney said it was a tragic error brought about by extreme stress when Mehserle reached for his Taser and instead pulled his gun and fired.
Zerby's family -- which will join with the coalition for Grant -- also charges that the Long Beach Police Department was negligent when officers shot Zerby multiple times as he sat on a second-story front porch cross-legged and playing with a hose nozzle.
Police were called to the location by a resident who said he saw an intoxicated man behind his house, and in front of some apartments on the same property, and that the man had a small gun.
Police Department officials said the nozzle in Zerby's hand, which is described by garden centers and home improvement stores as a "pistol-grip" nozzle, looked like a gun and that officers were forced to open fire before confronting Zerby and asking him to drop the item.
Zerby's family contends police had plenty of time to talk to Zerby as they called in back up units, K-9 patrols and the police department's helicopter to lock down the neighborhood. They insist that Zerby's extreme intoxication, he was described as barely able to walk by one neighbor and the 911 caller said he bobbing up and down, meant he posed no threat to the officers who had gathered around Zerby on the ground and in nearby properties.
Press conference organizers said they will demand U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder file federal charges of civil rights violations in the Grant case and take action in the deaths of several other unarmed residents shot by police in California, including Zerby, Derrick Jones, James Davis and Manuel Jamines Xum.
