Friday Morning News Roundup

A 24-year-old Vacaville man shot the mother of his child in the head before trying to kill himself, and was then fatally shot by Berkeley police officers last week at an East Bay car service center, authorities said Thursday.

Lamar Walker killed 24-year-old Alonna Gallon on Sept. 21 at the Toyota of Berkeley Service Center in Albany, according to an update from Alameda County Sheriff’s Office.

The sheriff’s office released initial details Thursday in a joint statement about an ongoing probe into the incident, which is also being investigated by the Albany Police Department and the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office.

Albany and Berkeley police, along with fire departments from both cities, responded to reports of an active shooter a little before 11:15 a.m. at the service center at 1025 Eastshore Highway in Albany near the Berkeley border.

The sheriff’s office said Berkeley officers arrived first and evacuated the area. They entered an open door on the first floor of the building’s west side and began searching both for victims needing medical assistance and for the suspect.

When they reached the second floor, they found Walker “crouched down near a desk in a large open area of the office, pointing a silver revolver at the entryway from which they approached,” the sheriff’s office said.

Five officers fired at Walker “to prevent further injuries or loss of life” and Walker was hit multiple times. He died at the scene.

The San Rafael Police Department on Thursday released an administrative investigation into a brutal use of force which occurred in the summer of 2022 that sparked lawsuits and claimed the jobs of the officers involved.

Julio Lopez was assaulted by an officer on July 27, 2022 for having an open container of beer, leaving him with a bloody face.

The San Rafael City Attorney’s office had fought to keep the investigation into the Lopez altercation from being released publicly, arguing that it was a personnel matter and therefore protected. A lawsuit was filed by the Marin Independent Journal to force the department to release the report. The Marin County Superior Court determined that since the Lopez case constituted great bodily injury, the release of the report was lawful, according to police spokesperson Lt. Scott Eberle. 

Lopez’ encounter was captured on a police body-worn camera.

A 40-year-old man is suspected of fatally poisoning his elderly mother with fentanyl earlier this year at a home in East San Jose, police said Thursday.

The death had been under investigation since the woman’s body was found at a home in the 1100 block of Utopia Place about 1:20 p.m. on June 6, according to San Jose police.

The case was turned over to the Santa Clara County Coroner’s Office, which determined on July 18 that the death was a homicide and that the woman had been intentionally poisoned with fentanyl.

Bradley Dexter, the woman’s son, was considered a suspect by detectives. Authorities also suspected Dexter in a violent attack on his father, who was hospitalized with serious injuries.

On Monday, officers located Dexter in San Jose and he was arrested and booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail on suspicion of homicide, poisoning, two counts of elder abuse, and his arrest warrant. The woman’s death is the city’s 28th homicide of 2023.

A 13-year-old child from Cotati has been found after he went missing Thursday afternoon, police said.

Chris, a transgender boy, was safely located, Cotati police announced in an advisory shortly after 1 a.m. Friday.

Before he was found, he was last seen in the area of Commerce Boulevard and Wilford Lane, according to police.

At least 30 suspects were arrested and 20 firearms were seized in Stockton, Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Thursday.

The arrests stemmed from a joint operation by the Stockton Police Department and the California Department of Justice targeting a violent organized criminal group in Stockton.

In a press release, Bonta said the investigation began on Aug. 2 after Stockton police officers responded to an armed carjacking of a 69-year-old man that ultimately led to the shooting of a police sergeant.

On Sept. 21, the investigation had led to numerous law enforcement agencies assisting in serving 19 search warrants and 11 arrest warrants in San Joaquin and Yuba counties.

A person was arrested on suspicion of the attempted murder of the sergeant. Four assault weapons and two ghost guns were also located in connection with the operation.

According to the news release, two violent crimes including a planned shooting were prevented because of the investigation.

Three suspects waiting for an accomplice behind a Target store in San Mateo instead found themselves in the company of police on Monday morning, authorities said.

Someone at the store, at 2220 Bridgepoint Parkway, had called police about 8:41 a.m. after seeing a suspect wearing a ski mask and carrying a backpack enter the store, while an accomplice parked a red Honda CR-V in the rear of the store.

Officers arrived about five minutes later and found the Honda parked next to a delivery door.

They detained three suspects in the car, later identified as Richard Mark Morales Jr., Jandre Pierre Blakely, and Jacey Lynn Cummans.

While the trio was being detained, the suspect in the ski mask emerged from the store’s delivery door, allegedly carrying nearly $2,000 in stolen goods. But when the suspect, later identified as Gerald Bennett Robinson Jr., spotted the officers he doubled back inside the store.

The officers went around to the front of Target and intercepted Robinson as he allegedly tried to escape.

Police in Santa Rosa are investigating a suspected gang-related robbery after a high school student was mugged while walking home from school on Wednesday.

The 15-year-old Montgomery High student was walking in the neighborhood just east of the campus when he was approached by two other juvenile suspects not believed to be associated with the school, according to police.

The suspects reportedly kicked and assaulted the student, knocking him to the ground before taking his shoes, police said. The suspects fled and were not located.

The victim, who sustained minor injuries during the assault, returned home without notifying police or the school.

Several anonymous tips, however, alerted police the next morning, saying that several unknown students were planning to come to the campus today with weapons and guns to assault another student.

The student who was targeted was reluctant to provide any further information to police, but it is believed that the threats reported online Thursday are related to the assault of the student off campus on Wednesday, police said.

Police arrested 10 suspects and seized 12 firearms this week at a location in West Oakland, according to police.

Officers with the Oakland Police Department Ceasefire Division spotted several people armed with numerous guns on Tuesday. They followed the suspects to the 1000 block of West Grand Avenue, where 15 people were detained, police said Thursday.

Of those, nine adults and one juvenile were arrested on suspicion of weapons violations.

The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office has filed charges against the nine adults; the charges against the juvenile are still pending.

The city of Santa Rosa will be spending nearly $22 million to resurface roads impacted by the 2017 Tubbs Fire following approval of a contract by the City Council on Tuesday.

The Coffey Park and Fountaingrove Neighborhood Roads Disaster Recovery Project will take on 33 miles of residential streets over 18 months in an effort to refurbish roadways damaged from extensive debris removal following the fire that was at the time the most destructive wildfire in California history.

The city approved a contract with Argonaut Constructors for $21.8 million, $13.8 million of which comes from a Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery award. PG&E, which wasn’t found liable for the fire but agreed to settle fire claims as part of its bankruptcy plan due to other wildfire liabilities, is contributing $5.6 million. The rest of the money will come from Capital Facility and utility impact fees, which are paid by the developer to lower the burden of infrastructure costs on taxpayers, and traffic relief funds from Measure M, a quarter-cent county tax approved in 2004 to pay for transportation strategies.

At a meeting earlier this week, Community Medical Centers or CMC gave the Stockton City Council an update on the progress they have made in the last few months since launching the city’s first-ever mobile crisis intervention response pilot program for mental health issues or behavioral health challenges.

From April to August, the crisis response team received 1,709 calls for help, with 1,576 coming in from June to August.

At the start of May, CMC only had 123 initial calls with only 10 followups, meaning that either someone called the crisis team back or workers from CMC made contact again with the person who called.

However, in August CMC made progress by having 216 initial calls, and followups jumped to 520.

Incoming calls rose 75 percent between May and August and followup calls had gone up 61 percent from July to August, according to CMC data.

Last November, CMC launched Stockton’s first-ever mobile crisis intervention response pilot program to aid 911 dispatchers and law enforcement during calls that deal with mental health issues or behavioral health challenges.

CMC is a nonprofit that provides medical, dental and behavioral health care to more than 100,000 patients throughout San Joaquin, Solano and Yolo counties.

The National Weather Service forecast for the greater San Francisco Bay Area on Friday calls for cloudy skies, with expected seasonable temperatures and breezy onshore winds.

Daytime highs are projected to be in the 60s to 70s on the coast, mainly in the 70s around the bay, and in the 70s to 80s inland.

Overnight lows should be in the 50s to 60s throughout the Bay Area, with a 20- to 30-percent chance of evening showers over much of the region.

According to forecasters, rain is looking more probable across the area through Saturday with accumulations generally less than a quarter of an inch. Warmer and drier conditions are expected to return briefly by midweek next week.

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