By Henry K. Lee
The San Francisco Chronicle
OAKLAND, Calif. — An Oakland police officer shot and killed a murder suspect in North Oakland on Thursday during a struggle, authorities said.
The shooting happened about 5 p.m. at 54th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way, when the officer, a supervisor with a crime reduction team, decided to contact a man on the street. The suspect resisted and began struggling with the officer, who used his Taser stun gun in an unsuccessful attempt to subdue him, police said.
The man then began to reach into his waistband, prompting the officer to fire two shots, according to an attorney for Oakland Police Officers Association. The suspect was taken to Highland Hospital in Oakland, where he was pronounced dead.
The identities of the officer and the slain man were not released. The department places officers who shoot suspects on paid administrative leave, which is standard procedure, pending investigations by Oakland police and the Alameda County district attorney’s office.
It was the third fatal officer-involved shooting in Oakland this year.
Some residents in the area near Children’s Hospital Oakland have expressed concern about recent violence in the neighborhood.
On Aug. 21, Ronald Jimmey Spears, 29, was shot and killed near 55th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way by a gunman who had asked him for a ride.
On July 22, Kikhiesha Brooks, 21, of Berkeley was killed in a drive-by shooting four blocks from where Spears was slain
Copyright 2007 San Francisco Chronicle