Henry K. Lee, 1/26/11
The mother of the man in a stolen car shot dead by an Oakland schools police sergeant said Tuesday that his death was unnecessary.
An attorney for the sergeant, however, said a preliminary investigation showed that deadly force had to be used because Raheim Brown, 20, of Alameda was stabbing another school police sergeant with a screwdriver.
The incident happened at 9:15 p.m. Saturday as Brown was sitting in the passenger seat of a Honda Accord parked on Joaquin Miller Road not far from where Skyline High School was having its winter ball. The car’s hazard lights were on, police said.
As a sergeant approached Brown, his partner approached Timesha Stewart, 20, who was in the driver’s seat. The officers smelled marijuana coming from the car, police said.
Brown produced a screwdriver and tried to stab the sergeant near the passenger side, prompting the other sergeant to fire through the car at Brown, said Doug Foley, an attorney representing the officers, whose names weren’t released.
The Honda had been stolen earlier that day, and police found a gun in the car, Foley said.
But Lori Davis, 36, of San Francisco said she doubted her son had tried to stab the sergeant with a screwdriver and that even if he did, that still did not warrant deadly force.
She said her son may have been trying to use the screwdriver to start the car. Authorities said a screwdriver had been used to start the Honda’s ignition.
“My son was not a violent person,” Davis said. “He was a very sweet person who helped as many people as he could.”
The gun in the car did not belong to her son, Davis said. She said she did not know who owned the weapon.
She said the police “murdered my son” and were “trying to cover up what the officer did.”
Stewart told Brown’s family that the sergeant had fired repeated shots at Brown’s head, Davis said. She said schools police are “there to protect children. You’re supposed to protect kids, not to sit out there and do the death-kill shot.”
Police would not say where or how many times Brown had been shot.
School district police patrol campuses and school events. Brown and Stewart were believed to have no connection to Skyline High.
Foley said the sergeant had opened fire because his partner “was being stabbed with the screwdriver, which was clearly a threat to his life.”
Stewart has been charged with auto theft and possession of stolen property.
