New Oakland DA reinvestigating fatal police shootings, in-custody deaths

District Attorney Pamela Price, the first Black person to hold the position in Alameda County, California, is reinvestigating six fatal police shootings — including two by the same Oakland officer within months — plus two in-custody deaths.

According to The East Bay Times, there is no statute of limitations on filing charges in murder cases in California. The reviews conducted by Price’s newly established Alameda County Public Accountability Unit rebuke those of her predecessor, former District Attorney Nancy O’Malley, who concluded that neither of the two shootings by Officer Hector Jimenez warranted criminal charges.

“As the District Attorney of Alameda County, I refuse to be silent,” Price said Sunday, according to The Times. “I refuse to be complicit in murder, in racialized justice, in a failed system that does not respond to people suffering with mental health crises, that does not provide support to the community, and I understand that when police cross the line and murder and abuse and exploit people that that is a threat to public safety.”

Jimenez reportedly shot and killed Mack “Jody” Woodfox, 27, and 20-year-old Andrew Moppin-Buckskin nearly 15 years ago as they evaded traffic stops in Oakland, the largest city in Alameda County. Woodfox was shot twice in the back on July 25, 2008. Jimenez fired 10 rounds in his direction, killing him before an ambulance could arrive. He told investigators he feared for the life of his partner, Joel Aylworth.

“There are many shootings that are outrageous but they don’t meet the requisite criteria for criminal prosecution,” said civil rights attorney Jim Chanin, who represented the Woodfox family, according to The Times. But, he said, the Woodfox case is one Price “should take a very hard look at. No one really ever has.”

Chanin wants the new DA to examine all evidence before deciding whether to prosecute Jimenez, adding that his actions demand that level of scrutiny.

Seven months prior to the fatal encounter with Woodfox, Jimenez and officer Jessica Borello fatally wounded Moppin-Buckskin, who hid under a car and defied police orders to surrender.

Both men were unarmed, despite assertions that they appeared to reach toward their waistbands, where authorities reportedly believed weapons were.

In addition to reexamining those cases, Price will consider bringing charges against three Alameda city officers — James Fisher, Cameron Leahy and Eric McKinley — who killed Mario Gonzalez in April 2021. The incident drew analogies to George Floyd, as both men were detained on suspicions of shoplifting.

Gonzalez passed away after the officers, responding to reports of a man talking and acting strangely, pinned him down for several minutes. O’Malley claimed Gonzalez had a heart attack due to methamphetamine use and stress from the struggle with the police.

The Public Accountability Unit is also investigating the fatal shootings of Agustin Gonsalez by Hayward police in 2019, Caleb Smith by Hayward police in 2021, Joshua Gloria by Fremont police in 2021 and Cody Chavez by Pleasanton police in 2022.

Vinetta Martin’s alleged suicide at Santa Rita Jail in April 2021 is also facing new scrutiny.

Jimenez, now a homicide detective, still works for the Oakland Police Department. Initially dismissed by the OPD, he was reinstated in 2011 through his union’s efforts. A report issued years later determined Woodfox was not a threat at the time of his shooting and was running away when fatally injured by Jimenez.

Price called Woodfox’s case “the proverbial ‘straw that broke the camel’s back’ for me to move forward and run for this office a second time,” The Times reported, “to make valuable and needed changes.”

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