The father of the man shot to death by a BART police officer Jan. 1 has filed his own, separate federal lawsuit against BART, the officer and others involved.

Other relatives had filed a lawsuit in March, but Oscar Grant III's father — Oscar Grant Jr., imprisoned on a first-degree murder conviction throughout his son's entire life — filed his own case Friday, apparently to ensure he would collect a share of whatever monetary damages eventually might be awarded.

Former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle, 27, is charged with second-degree murder in the shooting of Grant III, 22, as Grant III lay facedown and unarmed on the platform of the Fruitvale BART station in Oakland.

Grant Jr. was convicted at age 22 in March 1986 — less than a month after his son's birth — of first-degree murder, attempted murder and robbery in a drug-related shooting that occurred Sept. 8, 1985, in East Oakland. He and two other men were found guilty in the death of Anthony Epps, 24, and the wounding of Epps' girlfriend, Terryl Robinson.

Oakland attorney Panos Lagos, representing Grant Jr., said his client now resides in the California State Prison, Solano, in Vacaville. He said Grant III had visited his father as a minor, but the elder Grant hadn't seen his son in five or six years.

"He was upset when he heard his son had been killed," Lagos said Monday.

Grant Jr.'s lawsuit claims he was "mentally, and emotionally

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injured and damaged" as a result of his son's death, suffering a loss of familial relations. The suit names as defendants BART, BART police Chief Gary Gee, Mehserle, and BART police Officers Anthony Pirone and Marysol Domenici.

The lawsuit seeks general and punitive damages but doesn't name a specific dollar amount sought. The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco.

Michael Rains, Mehserle's attorney in the criminal case and in the civil case filed by Grant's other relatives, said he'll most likely represent Mehserle in this case too.

"It certainly doesn't change the facts of the case," Rains said Monday of the new lawsuit. "It just shows what civil suits are usually about, which is people wanting money from beleaguered public agencies whether or not they are responsible for what happened."

Oakland attorney John Burris, who is representing the plaintiffs in that earlier lawsuit, said he would not oppose Lagos' motion to administratively relate the two lawsuits, but he had not considered whether to oppose consolidating the two into one.