Oscar Grant’s best friend, Johntue Caldwell, 25, was shot dead on July 15, 2011, two and a half years after Oscar Grant’s murder by BART police. Johntue Caldwell, godfather of Oscar Grant’s daughter Tatiana, was one of the young men on the Fruitvale BART platform on January 1st, 2009 when Oscar Grant was killed — and, as were all of Oscar Grant's friends, he was handcuffed for up to six hours after the killing by BART police yet not charged for any crime that night. Johntue Caldwell himself was unarmed and killed at a Hayward gas station at around 5:35 p.m., when “someone” walked up to his car and fired several times at him. His assailant has not been identified or located yet. He leaves behind two young sons.

Two years ago, Johntue Caldwell and friends filed a $5 million federal civil rights lawsuit on the basis of mistreatment by BART police officers, which included officers Tony Pirone and Marysol Domenici hurling racial slurs and touching a taser to his face seconds before Johannes Mehserle shot an unarmed Oscar Grant. Since Oscar Grant was killed, Hayward police have repeatedly targeted Oscar Grant's friends for harassment and abuse. Since the lawsuit was filed, BART has tried to smear Johntue Caldwell and Oscar Grant's other friends publicly and through leaks to the corporate media. The lawsuit is still pending, but one of the litigants is now dead.

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See Also: Oscar Grant Family Attorney John Burris Confronts BART's Bad Faith Attacks | Town Hall Reports from Inside Venue Change Hearing and on Hayward Police Brutality | Indybay Coverage of the Justice for Oscar Grant Movement