In a dramatic story that has been stoked by amateur YouTube videos, the aftermath of the fatal New Year’s Day shooting of a young man by a BART police officer accelerated Wednesday night as hundreds of protesters rampaged through the streets of downtown Oakland, creating a near-riot that lasted for several hours.

Oakland police are bracing for more protests this morning after at least 105 people were arrested for a variety of offenses Wednesday night.

Police said charges for those arrested included assault on a police officer, looting, vandalism and arson. Some of those detained were found to have drugs, which added another count to the charges.

Angry about the New Year’s Day shooting of Oscar Grant III by a BART police officer, protesters smashed businesses and set fires in downtown Oakland, and confronted Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums on the steps of City Hall.

Today, Oakland police are hoping protests will be less violent, but plan to have extra officers on the streets and will be in riot gear. A protest is expected outside BART headquarters, where the agency’s board meeting will be held at 9 a.m.

Businesses downtown are cleaning up this morning, dealing with the aftermath of smashed windows and cars.

Leemu Tokpa had swept glass shards into two piles outside her shop, Creative African Braids, on 14th Street so that clients could get in the door.

She said a group of vandals smashed up her downtown Oakland shop and threw bottles at her while she was holding her 8-month-old baby.

She was working on a client in her business when a group of black males came over and started swearing and smashing her windows. She shouted at them, saying ‘Why are you doing this?’ Tokpa said. That’s when one threw a bottle at her.

“I had to run in the back to hide. They were cussing, saying the f-word and trying to force the door open,” Tokpa said. “It had nothing to do with (the BART shooting).

“Nobody feels happy about the guy getting killed, but if they come back to attack me as a black sister I feel very disappointed. I’m struggling here too. And they come and wreck my business.”

Her brother slept in the shop all night, to protect it from further vandalism she said.

Wednesday, family and friends attended a funeral for Grant, 22, who was shot to death by former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle, The shooting was caught on cell phone and digital camera videos and replayed on national television.

Also Wednesday, BART announced that Mehserle had resigned.

Beginning around 5 p.m., police responded to scattered disturbances as hundreds of protesters marched from the Fruitvale BART station to City Hall, overturning trash cans, setting cars and trash containers on fire and taunting police trying to control them. At one point, protesters rammed a trash container against a police car, bashing in the front and back windows and denting the passenger side.

For several hours, scores of police officers from Oakland, BART and the Housing Authority skirmished with as many as 200 demonstrators who had broken away from the Fruitvale demonstration and who appeared to be doing most of the vandalism. Officers used tear gas to disperse protesters who moved about downtown streets, breaking the windows of some businesses and setting multiple cars on fire and forcing police to shut down a number of streets.

At a 9:30 p.m. news conference, police said they had arrested 14 adults and one juvenile, with at least one person charged with assaulting a police officer. Officials were bracing for another protest expected this morning when the BART board meets at its headquarters near Lake Merritt.

Earlier Wednesday, more than 1,000 people turned out at a Hayward church to remember Grant, the 22-year-old father one worshipper called “the apple of God’s eyes.” Cell phone videos apparently show Grant lying in a passive pose, then being shot by an officer standing over him.

On the same day, as word spread that Mehserle had quit the force, about 50 protesters met with Alameda County District Attorney Tom Orloff to demand that his office file charges against Mehserle. BART officials announced Wednesday that Mehserle, 27, had resigned. Earlier in the week, the officer’s attorney postponed a meeting that had been scheduled by BART investigators for Tuesday and sought to defer the meeting until next week, according to a news release from BART.

BART investigators declined the delay and scheduled Wednesday’s meeting, during which Mehserle’s attorney and union representative submitted his resignation letter. The officer was not present, according to the release from BART.

BART officials had urged Mehserle to meet and cooperate with the transit agency’s investigation into the fatal shooting, which has been playing out online in disturbing videos and eyewitness accounts of the melee that led to the incident. Officers were called to the station after a report that a fight had broken out on a train.

“This shooting is a tragic event in every respect for all involved,” BART General Manager Dorothy Dugger said. “We recognize that the family and friends of Oscar Grant are in mourning, and we extend our condolences.”

At the funeral services at Palma Ceia Baptist Church, friends described the young father as a natural leader of other kids in the church’s Royal Ambassadors program, and some thought he would someday become a pastor himself.

“I met Oscar when he was young — 6, 7, 8 years old. Oscar always knew so much for a young person,” Deacon Eugene Carter said during the service. “It seemed like he knew as much as some adults. “… He would ask adult questions.”

Carter said that from a young age, Grant enjoyed fishing, baseball, chess, dominoes — “whatever you knew how to do, Oscar already knew how to do it.” Church member Donna Smith said Grant “always wanted to lead his family in prayer. Oscar had the loudest voice when he sang in the Sunshine Choir.”

The Rev. Ronald Coleman urged the crowd to “show how believers handle times like this — the world is watching.”

He urged church members to respond with prayer and prudence.

“I can understand that youngsters are upset and angry,” said Coleman, “but you have to have trust in God.”

Contact Patrick May at pmay@mercurynews.com.