November 9, 2010 | 3:52 PM | By

Oakland Police kill unarmed man, fired on in separate incidents last night

FILED UNDER: Community, Police, Aramiya Burrell, Copwatch, Derrick Jones, East Oakland, Kwik Stop Barbershop, Oakland, Oakland Police, Officer-involved shooting

Ali Winston

Charles and Maurice Jones, cousins of Derrick Jones, at Oakland Police headquarters following a press conference today

A 37-year-old business owner was shot to death in East Oakland by police officers last night, just hours after Oakland police officers were fired on in West Oakland while questioning a parolee.

Derrick Jones, 37, was shot to death by two OPD officers near the corner of Bancroft Avenue and Trask Street after a foot chase. At a press conference today, Deputy Police Chief Jeff Israel said officers had received a call about a man “attempting to kill a woman” at a laundromat on Bancroft Avenue by allegedly choking her and slamming her head. When the two officers stopped Jones for questioning inside the Kwik Cuts Barbershop he owned nearby, Jones took off running.

Photo courtesy of Mario Hodge

Derrick Jones

During the chase, Deputy Chief Israel said, the officers unsuccessfully attempted to tase Jones. Police also say Jones did not respond to commands to halt and kept reaching for his waistband. At one point, an officer saw an unspecified metal object in Jones’ hands. According to Deputy Chief Israel, when police confronted Jones in the 5800 block of Trask Street and ordered him to raise his hands, Jones did not comply, dropped his hands to his belt and looked over his shoulder towards the officers. The two officers then fired on Jones, striking him multiple times.

He was pronounced dead at the scene. The shooting is under investigation by OPD’s Homicide and Internal Affairs units – the Alameda County District Attorney is also conducting a separate probe.

The names of the police officers were not released – however, OPD Spokesman Jeff Thomason did say that both officers were not white, in hope of reducing racial tensions around officer-involved shooting.  According to Officer Jeff Thomason, an Oakland Police spokesman, Jones was not armed. Thomason would not identify the metal object found on Jones.

At the time of his death, Jones was on parole for a firearms offense.

Relatives and friends of Jones present at OPD headquarters challenged the official account – they claim Jones was shot six to eight times in his back. Police say this Derrick Jones was shot less than five times, and he was not struck in the back.

Sammy Jones, an uncle, said his nephew lived with his wife and daughter, and that the woman who Derrick allegedly assaulted was an ex ((with)) who((m)) he had tried to break up with several times. According to Sammy Jones, this woman had threatened to call the police on Derrick Jones if he kept rejecting her advances.

A cousin, Charles Jones, says the family has been traumatized by the shooting, particularly in light of recent controversy over the killing of Oscar Grant and sentencing of Johannes Mehserle, the ex-BART officer who shot him. The problem, Jones believes, is that many officers who patrol Oakland, like Mehserle and much of OPD, are not from the city and do not live here.

“I think they’re sending people from other cities and they don’t know Oakland to that point, they’re just probably gonna strike out at anybody they see because they don’t know that place,” said Charles Jones. “They’re scared, they’re frightened, they don’t know know Oakland. We know Oakland, we be in here every day.”

The second incident on Monday evening took place across town around 7:30 PM, when two patrol officers stopped a suspected probationer in the 600 block of Sycamore Street close to Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Details of the incident still remain unclear, but Deputy Police Chief Israel provided this account today: when the officers detained the probationer, two people approached the officers to ask them about the arrest . The pair left, and shortly thereafter, one of those two men returned and fired on the officers. Officers flooded the area and located a suspect after an extended search. Copwatch has published video of OPD officers detaining two unidentified passersby at gunpoint.

Aramiya Burrell, a 19-year-old Oakland resident, was arrested in connection with the shooting. No weapon was found on him, and Burrell has yet to be charged by the Alameda County DA. However, Oakland Police believe Burrell is the shooter – he is known to West Oakland patrol officers and has had prior contact with the police.

Officer Thomason said investigators do not believe last night’s shooting on Sycamore Street was linked to an incident in the same neighborhood in July, when a rooftop gunman fired on a West Oakland patrol officer during a car stop.

Oakland Police are asking anyone with information about either incident to contact the Homicide Division at (510) 238-3821.

  • Mr. Ray

    Oakland police will continue to do what they wish in the name of our previous offences. They are cowards, and shake, when they approach a black man.

  • http://thebaseballoutsider.net Rick Kaplan

    “Dream Team” An alternative anti-racist view of euphoria over Giant’s victory

    100,000 fans gave the San Francisco Giants a delirious welcome on Market Street last Wednesday following their victory over Texas.

    I had a dream. Following the rousing parade, a now solemn Giants’ leader comes to the podium in front of those triumphant fans assembled in Civic Center Plaza and asks, “Can we have a moment of silence for Oscar Grant and the other victims of racism and inequality?”

    The crowd grows silent.

    Back to reality. 500 people, among them I’m sure some of the Giant’ revelers, gathered in Oakland two days later to demand an end to racist police murders. Oscar Grant was shot in the back by the BART police on early New Year’s morning 2009. The judge told his family yesterday that his life was worth six months in jail for the killer. We have been repeating the same story for three hundred years. On Thursday in Oakland, 1000 heavily armed police from more than fifteen Bay Area jurisdictions were present in order to preserve that history of inequality and injustice by any means necessary.

    Why weren’t there 100,000 of us in Oakland?

    The Giants’ ticker-tape parade really was quite a spectacle. And the euphoria in downtown San Francisco was so thick, to paraphrase Brian Wilson, that you could smoke it. The fans were happy, the players were happy, the clean-up crews were happy, even the police horses were happy. At times it t seemed like I was the only one in the world–with the possible exception of Nolan Ryan–who wasn’t beside myself with joy.

    So, why was everyone else so giddy? The day before, Election Day, Prop.19 (decriminalize marijuana) didn’t even pass.

    Yes, the season was great, and the rally was fun. But this wasn’t exactly VJ Day. Nobody had declared an end to cancer, world hunger, or racism.And with the haves already trouncing the have-nots, the voters decided to let the tax-evading corporations continue to be on welfare (prop. 24).

    Yes, another long-suffering baseball team had won the World Series. But most Bay Area residents can’t even afford to go to games regularly, and nobody really cares as long as the more affluent fans fill the park.

    Still, fan after fan, even those who are unemployed or near homelessness, declared this to be “the greatest day of my life.” Even as we wait for the next layoff, an even more destructive oil spill, and another U.S. led bombing and invasion, everyone is asked to cheer fly-bys, pay homage to “our trooping overseas defending our freedom here,” and adorn themselves with Giants’ souvenirs.

    Why do we march to their their beat? In some ballparks, “America the Beautiful” has even replaced “Take Me Out To the Ballgame.” But we go along with them because, despite the everyday exclusion and exploitation and hopelessness that is the reality of America in 2010, the Giants seemed to offer the fans a place in their family.

    And this may the biggest reason why we celebrated so enthusiastically. We all want to be a part of things. But how and what we are allowed to be part of these days, and the manner in which we can connect, is being more and more restricted and increasingly tailored to the needs of the rich and powerful. Have you noticed that real unions and social justice organizations are disappearing? In their place we are being offered the endless “We’re part of the team” propaganda and patriotism that the teams and the media are pushing.

    But you’re not part of their team. You didn’t make the pitches, and you didn’t drive in the runs. And you’re not getting the multi-year deal with Seattle or Tampa Bay or the Mets. Nobody is going to give you a job or a fair deal on your foreclosure because the Giants won and are hugely profiting from their success with the fans.

    Undeniably, we all need to feel connected. But we are under siege from the rich, including the “appreciative” baseball owners, the corporations and banks with whom they have privileged relationships, and the players themselves. Yet, we often seem to care more about the contract negotiations of our favorite pitcher or DH than we do about the enormous troubles of our neighbors and fellow human beings.

    Many of us are feeling excluded by society these days. So, when we get a chance to express our “love for the Giants” and they seem to reciprocate, we get joyfully carried away. Don’t forget that the players, no matter how gracious and appreciative on parade day, will inevitably be chasing the highest multi-million dollar contract available after they get done professing all the love, quite sincerely at the time, they feel for SF and their teammates.

    While we will be heading down to the unemployment office, or ending up face down on a cold BART platform.

    Unless we organize and fight. Unless we give the memory of Oscar Grant and all the others–the executed youth, the laid off, the homeless, the injured and discarded workers– at least as much importance we are now giving to fun and games offered to us by the well-to-do, then we will follow the same path that the misguided masses found themselves marching along in imperialist and racist empires of the past.

    You may think I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one . . .

    .

  • Miss T

    If you pay attention to what is said after every officer involved shooting u will hear the same thing. “He was reaching for something.” Mehserle said Oscar Grant was reaching for something & that always seem to be the line that get them paid vacation time that the city calls admin leave while they “investigate” aka sweep it under the rug in hopes it will cool down…How can we trust OPD or tell our kids to trust OPD because they will protect & serve when they are shooting the community in the backs. These are humans not wild animals. Another family torn apart, another child without a father, another mother burying her son just as the holidays approach. The part that is the lowest of all times is to try to slander a name from what u read abt the past. Everyone has things in their past that they are not proud abt but they work to make a better present/future and move forward….WE LOVE YOU DERRICK “DD” JONES

  • George

    If peple would use there head. Stop when you ar told to They will not be shot. But they do sumthing stupid. Then it is the racist police to blame. It is the rich to blame. Lets lute set fires, vandalize cars property. and shoot people. Then I have no sympathy at all. For them If you shoot rieters It will all sto.

  • MYLOW

    GEORGE FUCK YOU YOU STOP LIKE A DOG WHEN CALLED HE WAS NOT DOING SHIT WRONG

  • Miss T

    I feel sorry for u George. U are a miserable ignorant person in search of attention.U will never know the pain of a mother losing a child but words hurt more than a powerful blow. Only “hurt ppl will hurt ppl” I dont wish this on anyone. The words u speak can also be spoke to u by someone u would least expect it from. God Bless u & keep u safe from any hurt harm or danger because ur mouth & ur way of thinking shows ur morals & level of respect for others.