Our journey began after the murder of my nephew, the late 22-year-old, Oscar Julius Grant III, who was fatally shot in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day 2009 by BART Police officer Johannes Mehserle in Oakland, California, United States. Responding to reports of a fight on a crowded Bay Area Rapid Transit train returning from San Francisco, BART Police officers detained Oscar Grant and several other passengers on the platform at the Fruitvale BART Station. Officer Johannes Mehserle and another officer had restrained Grant, forcing him to lie face down. Mehserle drew his pistol and shot Oscar in the back while his hands were crisscross behind his back to be handcuff. Oscar was unarmed. He was pronounced dead the next morning at Highland Hospital in Oakland. The events were captured on multiple official and private digital video and privately owned cell phone cameras. Owners disseminated their footage to media outlets and to various websites, where it was watched millions of times. Both peaceful and rebellious protests took place in the days following. We were vigilant in keeping egregious police violence in the spotlight throughout the criminal trial and eventual conviction, July 8, 2010, of former B.A.R.T. Police Officer Johannes Mehserle for January 1, 2009, unlawful killing of Oscar Grant III. On August 13, 2010, I established The Oscar Grant Foundation, as a Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation. Our mission for the Oscar Grant Foundation was to bring about an awareness of families impacted by police violence. We worked to bridge the gap between the victim families and that of objective caring and knowledgeable individuals who can make appropriate services and resources available to the families in need. We provided support, needs assessment, emergency counseling, resource referral information, and treatment for the emotional injuries sustained to assist the family through the initial aftermath of a traumatic event caused by police violence. We understood it was the community support, love, tears, prayers, response, and video that was instrumental in getting the first Police officer in State Of California history charged, arrested, convicted, and sent to jail for an on-duty shooting of a Black or Brown man. We took that relationship with the community to families to build a support base among these families that have suffered the same pain. I repeatedly stated from the establishment of the Oscar Grant Foundation that I was committed to upholding the legacy of Oscar Grant III for my sister, Oscar Grant mother, Wanda Johnson and Oscar daughter, Titania Grant. We diligently built the Oscar Grant Foundation from its inception date to July 10, 2014, gifting the Oscar Grant Foundation to my sister Wanda Johnson. On this same date July 14, 2014, we co-founded the Love Not Blood Campaign as a social justice organization to continue the work that was done in the Oscar Grant Foundation and expand into communal violence. The Love Not Blood Campaign works to bring about an atmosphere of social justice throughout the United States by building a family lead movement. Our vision is the world where no one has the right to take the life of another and be protected/ insulated from the consequences of doing so by a system of structural racism, obfuscation, and propaganda. Our methodology will be to provide front-line support services for families who have been impacted by police or communal violence, building a powerful movement for police accountability and transparency. The LNBC will also provide ongoing mentoring and support services to families, students and various activities specifically designed to enhance family and political activism using vigorous campaigning to bring about social change. Finally, the LNBC will provide cultural sensitivity training to law enforcement agencies, focusing on the historical impact police violence have on impacted families and communities and its resulting cultural pathology.

January 30, 2010 On January 30, 2010, Alameda County prosecutors charged Mehserle with murder for the shooting death of Oscar Grant. Mehserle soon resigned his position and pleaded not guilty. After a change of venue, the criminal trial began June 10, 2010 in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

July 8, 2010 On July 8, 2010, the jury returned its verdict: Mehserle was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter, and acquitted of both second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter, but also found guilty of the gun enhancement charge. Judge Robert Perry, claimed he erred in his instructions to the jury and removed the gun enhancement charge. Initial protests against the ruling were peacefully organized, however, looting, arson, destruction of property, and small riots broke out after dark. Nearly 80 people were eventually arrested.

July 9, 2010 On July 9, the U.S. Justice Department opened a civil rights investigation against Mehserle, however, in July 2015, DOJ declined to file federal charges against Mehserle.

August 13, 2010 The Oscar Grant Foundation (OGF) was established on August 13, 2010, as a Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation. It was founded by Oscar Grant Uncle, Cephus Uncle Bobby Johnson, after the criminal trial and subsequent conviction of former B.A.R.T. Police Officer Johannes Mehserle for the January 1, 2009 unlawful killing of Oscar Julius Grant III.

November 5, 2010 On November 5, 2010, Mehserle was sentenced to two years in State Prison, but was given double credit for the 146 days he had already served prior to sentencing, thereby reducing his sentence by 292 days to serve only 11 months. Mehserle served his time in the Los Angeles County Jail, occupying a private cell away from other prisoners, and was released on June 13, 2011. Uncle Bobby outside Los Angeles County Jail waiting for Johannes Mehserle exit. They remove him through the back door.

Our Work

The Love Not Blood Campaign works to build a broad-based and vibrant Network of Families affected by Homicide. Whether affected by police Brutality, community violence, or the prison industrial complex.
Losing a loved one through homicide is one of the most traumatic experiences that an individual can face; it is an event for which no one can adequately prepare, but which leaves in its wake tremendous emotional pain and upheaval.
It is important to recognize that, no matter how supportive or compassionate the victim/witness assistance coordinators may be, survivors often find it helpful to obtain additional advocacy services.
LNBC Family Intervention Crisis Team, all victims of homicide, recognize the importance of additional advocacy services, utilizes multiple approaches in its efforts to promote a healthy Family support-based discourse to bring about real and sustainable positive recovery.

LNBC Family Intervention Crisis Team focus is placed on supporting the capacity of Parents, Families, Children, and community members utilizing the support group framework to advocate for their Love one and on strengthening their ability to work collectively to achieve their goals. LNBC offers a practical and achievable way for families and grassroots organizations to collaborate and achieve synergies, otherwise not possible, as illustrated by its on-going Family Crisis Team support groups, –
LNBC have trained advocates who can accompany homicide victim to hearings, trial proceedings, meetings with the coroner, etc., providing emotional support and information about the process.
Through participation in support groups, many homicide survivors have found that others who have been through the same experience have also had similar reactions. They find that they have permission to openly express the pain of their loss, speak the unspeakable and finally reveal “revenge fantasies” — which are a normal reaction to violent victimizations. For these reasons, support groups can be very “normalizing” for families and friends of victims, allowing them to feel that they are not going crazy and that others are experiencing and surviving the same depth, complexity and confusion of emotions.
The support group setting also permits survivors who are further along in their healing to give hope to those who are newly bereaved or who are having an especially difficult time. Through providing and receiving support, survivors are able to help each other and to see that some good is able to come out of the pain that they have experienced.
This is because many of the painful feelings have been brought to the surface. What they have found is that there is no way to get through the grief except to just go through it, however difficult it may be.
As difficult as this may be at the time, many survivors state that this process ultimately helps them to progress through the grieving process.

To Be Completed.

On January 1st 2010, Uncle Bobby, Uncle of Oscar Grant coordinated the First Oscar Grant Vigil, homicide support group.
On September 15th 2010, Uncle Bobby, founder of Oscar Grant Foundation, coordinated the first police homicide victim event in Northern California titled, “Mothers Taking a Stand against Police Brutality & Gun Violence”, more than 60 Bay Area mothers, families, and friends took a stand on the elimination of all Forms of gun violence, whether police or community.
January 1st 2011 Second Oscar Grant Vigil
Similarly, on July 8th 2011, Uncle Bobby, founder of the Oscar Grant Foundation, coordinated the event titled, “Verdict Day – Mothers Finding Comfort and Hope in A Time of Grief. More than 100 mothers, families, children, community members, friends gathered together to support the families of slain children.
And again, September 11th 2011 Uncle Bobby, founder of the Oscar Grant Foundation, coordinated the event titled, “Say It Loud, I am Black and Proud, When I Say Black, I mean Red and Brown”. More than 100 community groups came together breaking down the stereotype that exist among communities of different ethnicities. This event generated better relationship.

January 1st 2012 Third Oscar Grant Vigil
March 2012 Trayvon Martin
April 2012 Frank Graham
January 1st 2013 Forth Oscar Grant Vigil
January 1st 2014 Fifth Oscar Grant Vigil

to be completed…….

Our Family Tribute to Oscar Grant Pt1– Family
Oscar Grant Family reflects on their relationship with Oscar — Grandmother Bonnie, mother Wanda Johnson, sister Chantay Moore, daughter Tatiana Grant, fiancée Sophina Mesa, Uncle Bobby, and Uncle Daryl

Our Family Tribute to Oscar Grant Pt2– Oscar Mother Wanda, Oscar Fiancee Sophina, Oscar Daughter Tatiana

Tatiana Reads Letter to her Daddy Oscar Grant

Wanda Johnson, Oscar Grant’s mother speaks on the murder of her son