Police

Breaking: fatal shooting at Milvia and Russell

July 16, 2010 6:34 pm by Lance Knobel

Berkeley police are investigating a fatal drive-by shooting that took place around 5:30 p.m. today near the intersection of Russell and Milvia.

Berkeleyside has called the police for details and we’ll update the information as we receive it.

Update 7:11 p.m. Regular commenter Thomas Lord reports through the comments:

For what little it’s worth:  closer to 5:15 according to neighbors.  Neighbors gathered around the scene also indicated that they had no reason to believe the shooting was connected to anyone who lives on that block.  None of the neighbors I spoke with witnessed the event other than hearing the shots and then the sirens.

Apparent relatives and loved ones of the victim were quick to the scene. On a personal note, I felt great sorrow (adequate words fail me) witnessing loved ones discover the terrible news.

Police, the coroner’s office, and the EMT’s on the scene were (for obvious reasons) not in a state where I would have felt OK about probing for more information.

Update 8:10 p.m. According to Berkeley Police Department Sergeant Mary Kusmiss, the BPD received multiple 911 calls at 5:10 p.m. reporting shots fired in the 2800 block of Milvia. When officers arrived on the scene, they found a man in his 30s slumped over the steering wheel of a car, having been shot. Paramedics worked on the victim for 15 minutes, but efforts to revive him were unsuccessful and he was pronounced dead.

Kusmiss says that the BPD homicide detail is investigating at the scene of the shooting. A number of independent witnesses have come forward and Kusmiss says their “participation will be very helpful”. No other injuries were reported at the scene. According to Kusmiss, the police are open to any explanation for the crime, but “do not believe the shooting was random”. A large number of family and friends were present and, Kusmiss said, it “was a very emotional scene for everyone involved”.

The incident is the second fatal shooting of the year in Berkeley, and the third homicide. There is still a $17,000 reward offered for information in the June 3rd shooting of Kenneth Jerome Tims, Jr. at 62nd and King.

17 Comments

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  • http://basiscraft.com Thomas Lord

    For what little it’s worth: closer to 5:15 according to neighbors. Neighbors gathered around the scene also indicated that they had no reason to believe the shooting was connected to anyone who lives on that block. None of the neighbors I spoke with witnessed the event other than hearing the shots and then the sirens.

    Apparent relatives and loved ones of the victim were quick to the scene. On a personal note, I felt great sorrow (adequate words fail me) witnessing loved ones discover the terrible news.

    Police, the coroner’s office, and the EMT’s on the scene were (for obvious reasons) not in a state where I would have felt OK about probing for more information.

  • s z underwood

    A few more details from sf gate:

    (07-16) 20:28 PDT BERKELEY — A Berkeley man was shot and killed Friday evening while sitting in his parked car, just two blocks from his South Berkeley home, police said.

    At around 5:10 p.m., dispatchers received a flurry of 911 calls, said Sgt. Mary Kusmiss, a Berkeley Police spokeswoman. When police arrived, they found a man slumped over the steering wheel of a red Mercedes sports car on Milvia Street near Russell Street.

    Paramedics attempted to revive him for about 15 minutes before he died, Kusmiss said. It is the third homicide of the year in Berkeley, which Kusmiss said has averaged less than 10 homicides a year for two decades.

    Family and friends gathered at the scene identified the man as Marcus Mosley, 29, though police would not confirm his identity. Two years ago, a Marcus Mosley was wounded in a Berkeley shooting that police at the time described as stemming from “some perception of disrespect.”

    Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/16/BADV1EFU0A.DTL#ixzz0tulLZZiE

  • http://basiscraft.com Thomas Lord

    Also on berkeleydailyplanet.com

    http://berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2010-07-13/article/35878?headline=Berkeley-Man-Shot-Dead-On-Milvia-Street

    There are a variety of details not to get into here but its a very sad, somewhat complicated story.

  • laura menard

    Nothing complicated here, all these stories have the same theme.

    What is tough in a place like Berkeley is speaking truth about power. The power is with the street thugs, who have no problem performing a targeted hit in a crowded environment. My kid and I heard from other neighbors were walking home when this went down.

    Mosley was a known player, the game is not very complicated Thomas.
    Sometimes I want to rename you Dr. Pangloss

  • http://basiscraft.com Thomas Lord

    Ms. Menard,

    I said that there are details not to go into and that it is a sad and complicated story.

    There are some complicating details that, so far, all of the news outlets I’ve seen have (wisely) chosen not to discuss. It is a sad and complicated story.

  • tizzielish

    Ms. Menard, even if Mr. Mosley was a ‘known player’ and even if that vague phrase means he was active in illegall activity, geez, can’t you give the simple, sad fact that a human being was slaughtered in street/gang/drug violence a little space before you slam the deceased?!

    Mr. Mosley was a human being. A member of our tribe. Whatever wrongs he may have committed, whatever ‘known player’ implies, he didn’t deserve to get gunned down. And those who love him deserve a little grace from the rest of us in their grief.

    Mr. Lord, I dislike the way you imply that you are wisely in the know, an insider with insider knowledge that you, in your special, self-appointed wisdom, have chosen to withhold from the rest of us. This elitist, insider attitude is hard to keep choking down. If you know something relevant, tell us. Or don’t tell us. But grow up already: don’t say “I know something you don’t know and I am not going to tell”.

  • Dashay Poole Scott

    Marcus was my first cousin and he was a good man who had never hurt any one in his life and he was shot 2 years ago an it left his brother in law dead and it was very hard for him so for someone who didn’t know him to call him a know player they could not have been more wrong…….Get your facts straight before you make comments……..

  • http://basiscraft.com Thomas Lord

    tizzielish,

    I’m sure I came across so – it’s fine of you to call that out.

    My intention was originally, upon repetition, and still strongly remains to encourage a voluntary embargo among comment makers regarding details not already in the press, that more than one of us is probably now privy too. For now, not forever, certain additional widely known facts should (in my opinion) remain quietly known to those who know them and to the police. Please.

    Sure, I’ll take the elitist rap, if that’s what it takes. Guilty as charged.

  • http://basiscraft.com Thomas Lord

    Dashay Poole Scott,

    Please take what comfort you can from the fact that (as I saw it) the crowd at the scene was deeply saddened, especially as family members arrived to learn the horrible news. I’m not certain but I don’t think I personally know anyone in your family. Those I’ve spoken with who do have also expressed deep sorrow and noted how awful it is that your family also endured Maceo’s murder.

    Our bickering was, I think it is safe to say, not meant by any of us to harm your family. Several of us regular comment makers (probably all of us, really) are upset by and (obviously) want to see this kind of crime stop. We disagree about what can and should be done and sometimes there are bitter arguments about that.

  • laura menard

    tizzielish,

    I am not a member of any tribe, and if I had such a choice, I would not chose one organized around street justice rules. I will continue to speak harshly about tit for tat homicide/suicide culture, immediately or otherwise following its vicious criminal results.

    This is an overt act of compassion and courage.

  • Zach H

    To those leaving comments about people they don’t know and that just want to have an opinion about something to post online, maybe holding that opinion to yourself would be best advised. Marcus was a friend of mine for over 18 years and was not a violent person nor ever hurt anyone, he and his family deserve better than to have some random person posting public comments about their perspective of his life. He did not deserve to be killed.

    To portray his murder as something he had coming to him or that he was a “known player”, whatever that means, is out of line and just plain fodder.

    No parent should ever have to see the death of their child, and for his surviving family who have dealt with enough loss through violence to relive it all over again is the real main theme here Ms. Menard.
    “I am not a member of any tribe, and if I had such a choice, I would not chose one organized around street justice rules.”
    Frankly, nobody asked you, and furthermore your comments have no relevance to changing what occurred. You should be ashamed for placing your worthless two cents where there aren’t needed or valid.

    Hopefully your child doesn’t grow up with a friend who is brutally murdered, all to have their name smeared by some random person with an unwarranted opinion.

    ZH

  • s z underwood

    Going back to the earlier shooting in which the current victim’s brother-in-law was murdered in Berkeley and he was wounded, this is the “background story” that some posters may have been cryptically alluding to:

    Paste Tense

    The murdered man, Maceo Smith, was arrested in 2005 with several other men for a Richmond double murder that was retaliation for an earlier Oakland murder, according to Berkeley Police Sergeant Mary Kusmiss. The Richmond victims were “bombarded with gunfire,” according to a July 22, 2005 San Francisco Chronicle story: “Police say three of the suspects fired shots, one drove the car, and the two others conspired to kill and possibly supplied the weapons. Four of the men are on parole and would also be charged with parole violations.”

    SF Gate version of the the 2005 double homicide:

    http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/07/22/BAGNIDRQ9A1.DTL

  • laura menard

    Yep, Smith and his pals (most now dead) used to hang on California St near my house, we watched them grow up. Beamon and Murphy shot and killed on Tyler St and Alcatraz St, respectively. Murphy was arrested on my property following the Richmond murders. I came walking home to a big scene with my middle school aged son home alone.

    If I could I would post just one of the emails from Maceo Smith’s Oakland neighbors written to me following the Richmond police raid after the crew exacted revenge for Williams murder in Oakland, they were panicked. Our neighborhood was overwhelmed with NON-residents hosting a weeks long all night memorial event complete with gangbangers armed to the teeth using drugs and drinking publicly. Do you think this is where they organized their revenge posse? My neighbors called and wrote me emails as the chair of the NA crying and panicked. That summers war saw an alliance between SSB and WSB against Oakland and Richmond. Most of SSB are gone, and the players filling in on Sacramento St were eventually evicted from public housing because the BHA now complies with federal law and evicts for criminal activity. These are the lovely people TL suggests I slandered publicly, when I challenged the notion that they were innocent victims of police harassment as they claimed. Geez they nearly got one of our residents killed when some Richmond guys came to shoot them.

    And V wonders what the chip on my shoulder is about, seeing too much seriously f….. up stuff followed by the responses of the morons running this town. And being lectured by my “Berkeley Betters”.

  • http://www.davosnewbies.com Lance Knobel

    Berkeleyside is closing comments on this post.

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  • http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com Jane Stillwater

    Good grief.  That is the exact same block where my neighbor Marcus Mosley, 31, was shot and killed approximately one year ago.  Thus there is already a memorial to one victim of firearms violence on that block.

  • http://francesdinkelspiel.com/ Frances Dinkelspiel

    Jane that article was published in 2010 not 2011