At 2am on New Year’s Day in Oakland, California, a transit cop shot an unarmed man in the back, killing him. The victim was lying face down on the ground;  a second officer was holding him down, and three other cops were standing nearby at the time of the shooting.

The victim’s name was Oscar Grant. He was, of course, African-American.

Fortunately, there were witnesses with video cameras. This video (an excerpt from a TV news show replaying eyewitness footage) shows the shooting. This video — a separate, longer piece of eyewitness footage — gives a good sense of the context. The five cops at the scene were in control and not in any danger from Grant or anyone else. Grant wasn’t even handcuffed. Far from acting violently, he had been cooperating with the police before they killed him.

“I couldn’t believe it. We was already following directions and everything, and they shot him,” Fernando Anicete, one of the young men with Grant, told KTVU.

Burris has spoken to witnesses who claim that Grant was trying to resolve the situation.

“He had been telling people to calm down. ‘Be cool. Just do what they tell you to do,’ ” the attorney said.

It’s been suggested that the shooting was accidental — that the cop who pulled the trigger didn’t mean for his gun to go off, or thought he was firing his Taser. But even if that’s true, there was no reason to draw a weapon in the first place: Grant was lying face-down on the ground and was being held down by another officer when he was shot. You don’t point a weapon at someone unless you’re prepared to use it.

The Bay Area Rapid Transit Police Department is promising an “unbiased, thorough and detailed investigation.” However, a week after the shooting, the killer had still not given a statement to investigators. Indeed, the New York Times reports that investigators’ “efforts to interview him about the circumstances of the shooting had been rebuffed by his lawyers and police union leaders.” Because nothing says impartiality like giving the perpetrator over a week to get his story straight.

We can add Oscar Grant to a long list that includes other, better-known names: Jean Charles de Menezes, unarmed, shot and killed by police. Amadou Diallo, unarmed, shot and killed by police. Rigoberto Alpizar, unarmed, shot and killed by US air marshals. Robert Dziekanski, unarmed, Tasered to death by police. Jeff Berg, unarmed, beaten to death by police. Ian Bush, unarmed, killed by a shot to the back of the head while in police custody. I could go on.

None of the cops in any of these cases were convicted of a crime. In the Menezes, Alpizar, and Dziekanski cases, they didn’t even face charges. Is there any reason to believe the murder of Oscar Grant will be treated any differently?

(Hat tip to Chris Carlsson for the video links.)