| 2009 shooting of Oakland police officers | |
|---|---|
| Location | Oakland, California, USA |
| Date | Saturday, March 21, 2009 1:08 p.m. (PDT) |
| Target | Oakland Police Department officers |
| Attack type | Shootout |
| Weapon(s) | SKS, semiautomatic pistol |
| Deaths | 5 (4 officers, 1 perpetrator) |
| Injured | 1 |
| Perpetrator | Lovelle Mixon |
Two shootings of Oakland, California police officers took place on Saturday, March 21, 2009, when four officers were killed by a convicted felon wanted on a no-bail warrant for a parole violation. The convicted felon, Lovelle Mixon, initially shot and killed two Oakland police officers during a traffic stop, then killed two more when SWAT team officers attempted to apprehend him two hours later. Mixon staged an ambush of the SWAT officers from his hiding place and was killed in a barrage of gunfire as the officers returned fire in self-defense.[1]
The killings made it one of the worst days for law enforcement in California history. It was the single deadliest attack on California police officers since the Newhall massacre in 1970, when four California Highway Patrol officers were shot and killed by two men in Santa Clarita, California.
This incident brings the total number of Oakland police officers killed in the line of duty since 1867 to 51.[2][3]
Contents |
During this incident, four police officers were killed in the line of duty, and one additional officer was injured.
Killed:
Officers Dunakin, Romans, and Sakai died on March 21, 2009, while Officer Hege died from his injuries on March 24, 2009.
Injured:
The assailant was identified as Oakland resident Lovelle Mixon, age 26, who worked sporadically as a plumber and custodian.[9] Mixon wielded two different weapons—a semiautomatic handgun and an SKS rifle—during his deadly assaults on the Oakland police officers.[1]
Mixon had an extensive criminal history. Beginning at age 13, he was arrested multiple times for battery,[10] and by age 20 he began serving a Corcoran state prison sentence following a felony conviction for assault with a deadly weapon during an armed robbery in San Francisco. After he was paroled, Mixon was in and out of prison. At the time of his assault on the officers, he was living in East Oakland at his grandmother's house and was wanted on a no-bail arrest warrant for violating his current parole conditions. On March 20, 2009, the day prior to the police shootings, Oakland police learned that Mixon was linked by DNA to the February 5, 2009 rape of a 12-year-old girl who was dragged off the street at gunpoint in the East Oakland neighborhood where Mixon's sister lived. On May 4, 2009 a state laboratory confirmed this link and also said Mixon had robbed and raped two young women on the morning of March 21, 2009, hours before the shootings. Investigators said that Mixon may have committed several other rapes during recent months, although no convictions had been secured before his death.[11][12] If Mixon had been arrested for his parole violation, he would have faced at most six months in prison; if convicted of rape, he faced a life sentence.
Mixon had also been the primary suspect in a previous murder case; however, due to lack of evidence he had been charged only with lesser violations: possession of drug paraphernalia, forgery, identity theft, attempted grand theft, and receiving stolen property.[13][14][15]
Lovelle Mixon's deadly assault on the police has been called a "murderous rampage" by several commentators.[16][17][18]
On May 4, 2009, it was confirmed by a state laboratory that Mixon's DNA proved him responsible for a double rape that took place on the morning of March 21, hours before the shootings. [12] At approximately 5:40 AM, seven hours before the first part of Mixon's assault on the officers, two young women in their 20s were setting up a food court at High Street and International Boulevard. Mixon pulled a handgun (believed to be the one he used hours later in the shootings), marched them four blocks at gunpoint, raped them, and then fled the scene.
At 1:08 PM PDT, approximately seven hours after the rapes, two motorcycle officers pulled over Mixon's burgundy 1995 Buick sedan for a traffic violation, in the 7400 block of MacArthur Boulevard in East Oakland, one block away from Eastmont Town Center and an Oakland Police Department substation. After collecting Mixon's driver's license, Sergeant Dunakin became suspicious that the license was fake and signaled to his partner, Officer Hege, to arrest Mixon.[12][19] Witnesses say Mixon accessed a semi-automatic handgun and exited the vehicle, opening fire without warning. After both officers collapsed to the ground, he approached them and fired execution-style directly into their heads, then briefly remained standing over the bodies before fleeing on foot. Those who heard the gunshots say that Mixon fired approximately six rounds.[20] Neither officer was able to return fire.[21][22][23] Some witnesses called 911 and ran over to the stricken officers and started CPR. Sergeant Dunakin died at the scene. Officer Hege was mortally wounded, having been shot behind the left ear.
Mixon's family members were well aware of his criminal activity. According to a cousin, Mixon had recently purchased both his illegal semi-automatic handgun and the burgundy Buick using profits from his most recent criminal endeavor, pimping. Mixon was talking with his uncle by cell phone at the time of the traffic stop and promised to call back afterwards. “But he was probably thinking about that piece he had in the car,” said Curtis Mixon, 38, “and he wasn’t about to go back to jail.”[24]
Mixon fled the scene on foot into the surrounding neighborhood, leading to an intense manhunt by some 200 officers from the Oakland Police Department, the Alameda County Sheriff's Office, the BART Police Department, the California Highway Patrol, and several agencies from various cities. Nearby streets were cordoned off, and an entire area of East Oakland was closed to traffic.
At about 3:20 p.m. PDT, as police descended on the neighborhood, a local woman walked up to MacArthur Boulevard to see what the commotion was about. She noticed the burgundy Buick, and recalled seeing Mixon in the car during the previous few days. She also knew that Mixon's sister lived in a two-bedroom, ground-level apartment at 2755 74th Avenue, just a block from where the motorcycle officers were shot. Although she knew her life would be in danger if she were labeled a "snitch," the woman decided to give this information to an officer she recognized.[25]
Police concluded that the lives of people in the three-story apartment building might be at risk, so they couldn't afford to barricade the building and wait. They determined that because of the location of Mixon's sister's apartment within the building, there was no way to ensure that other residents could safely be brought through the single front entry door to the street. The SWAT team was not aware that, since the time of Mixon's first assault using a handgun, he had managed to secure an SKS carbine, likely stored in his sister's apartment. SWAT officers soon raided the apartment, bashing in the door while throwing nonlethal shock (flashbang) grenades.[25][26][27][28]
As the SWAT team entered a bedroom in a clear and search operation, Mixon ambushed them, shooting with the SKS rifle through the wall and door of the closet where he was hiding. One member of the SWAT team, Sergeant Romans, was killed immediately, and Sergeant Gonzales was wounded. Sergeant Gonzales, Sergeant Sakai, Alameda County Sheriff's Deputy Derrick Pope, and SWAT team Officer Mike Leite returned fire. Mixon was felled by the barrage of gunfire, yet managed to fatally wound Sergeant Sakai before dying.[8][29]
Some race-related issues surfaced following the shootings. Because Mixon was black and the slain officers were white or of mixed race, several community leaders voiced concern that the confrontation might lead to increased tensions between Oakland's black community and the Oakland Police Department.[30] Although many Oakland citizens had stepped forward to help at the scene of the motorcycle police shootings, about 20 bystanders had taunted police as they gathered at the scene.[31] Citing their cause as "resistance to police brutality," Uhuru House activists, who promote "African internationalism," handed out flyers in the neighborhood where Mixon was shot, inviting people to a rally where they might "uphold the resistance" of "Brother Lovelle Mixon".[32] The San Francisco Bay View, which identifies itself as a "National Black Newspaper," suggested that the killing of four police officers was a victory for "the people" and referred to Lovelle Mixon's death as a "murder".[33] Approximately 60 people attended the March 25 Uhuru House rally in support of Mixon. The demonstrators marched down MacArthur Boulevard, some carrying signs proclaiming "genocide".[34][35][36]
Black Oaklanders, as well as those belonging to other racial groups, seemed largely opposed to such sentiments.[25] A clear majority of those who regularly campaign against abuses of police power also rejected any attempt to attach legitimacy to Mixon's murder rampage.[37] Caroline Mixon, Lovelle Mixon's cousin, paid a public tribute to the Oakland police, thanking them for serving and protecting the people of Oakland.[38]
On the morning of March 27, 2009, Oakland citizens filled the overpasses and streets near the Oracle Arena in a show of support for the Oakland Police Department and the slain officers. By the time the service started at 11:00 a.m. PDT, the arena was filled to its capacity of 19,000, including the entire 800-strong Oakland police force; an overflow of at least 2,000 persons spilled over into the adjacent Oakland Coliseum. Police officers from around the state and nation, as well as a contingent from Canada, attended the event.[49]
Speakers included Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, and Attorney General Jerry Brown.[50] Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums attended; however, he was asked not to speak at the funeral by at least two of the slain officers' families, and he honored this request.[51][52] Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles also attended but did not speak. Oakland Police Department Chaplain, Father Jayson Landeza, read a letter of sympathy and support from Barack and Michelle Obama.
Relatives, friends, and comrades delivered eulogies to the four slain officers, praising their heroism, humanity, and selfless service to the people of Oakland.[37][53]
An affecting tribute came from Oakland Police Captain Edward Tracey, commander of the SWAT team that cornered Mixon. "These were my men," he said. "They died doing what they loved: riding on motorcycles, kicking in doors, serving on SWAT."[54] Captain Tracey thanked the witnesses who called 911 and attempted to aid Sergeant Dunakin and Officer Hege, "To the citizens who called 911 last Saturday to report our officers down and the brave man...I hope you hear me, sir...the brave man who provided CPR to our fallen heroes, we thank you, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Your actions let us know that they, that these officers, did not die in vain. That the people, that they were there to serve, were the ones that helped them in the end." The "brave man" he was thanking was Clarence Ellis, who had used his own coat to tamponade the arterial blood spurting from Sergeant Mark Dunakin's neck.[55][56]
Referring to press coverage that attempted to link the murder of the officers to the January 1, 2009, slaying of Oscar Grant, retired Oakland Police Department Lieutenant Lawrence Eade admonished the press, "For those who manipulate the story, may your careers be extremely difficult until you tell the truth... This is not about your ratings, this is about a tragic loss... The citizens are not arming themselves against the police, there is no war between us and you cannot create one!"[37]
After the service concluded at approximately 3:00 p.m. PDT, long cavalcades of police cars escorted the officers' coffins to their final resting places, and the thousands of mourners dispersed.
A portion of Interstate 580 (California) is now called the Sgt. Daniel Sakai Memorial Highway.