SAN FRANCISCO (CN) - Five men who were held for hours the night their friend Oscar Grant was shot and killed by a transit police officer will drop their claims for $175,000.
The settlement brings an end to a civil rights lawsuit brought in 2009 by Jack Bryson Jr., Nigel Bryson, Michael Greer, Carlos Reyes and Fernando Anicete Jr.
They said Bay Area Rapid Transit subjected them to "four painful hours in handcuffs" at BART headquarters where they sat "mourning the senseless shooting of their friend."
The men had been riding BART home with Grant on New Year's Eve 2008 when an "altercation" broke out. Officers met the train when it arrived at the Fruitvale station, but peace had allegedly already been restored to the time at that point.
While 22-year-old Grant was lying facedown and handcuffed on the station platform, alongside his friends, BART officer Johannes Mehserle fatally shot him with a pistol that he allegedly mistook for a Taser.
Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and served 11 months in prison.
Grant's mother and daughter have also received settlements totaling $2.8 million, and a lawsuit brought by his father is pending.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported on the settlement with Grant's friends Tuesday, but papers have not yet been filed with the court.
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