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Where young men on the street are gunned down for no reason
- Jim Herron Zamora, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, January 20, 2007



For young men in Oakland like Travis Barrow, the key to staying alive is making sure no one -- in the split second that it takes to pull a trigger -- mistakes you for a rival gang member or an intruding drug dealer or someone who simply cast a dirty look.

That means watching what you wear, where you hang out and looking carefully at everyone around without "mean-mugging." Some young men rarely leave their own neighborhoods except to go outside Oakland. Others won't travel in a posse larger than three to avoid becoming a target.

"I don't want to get shot again," said Barrow, 17, a senior at McClymonds High School who said he has been wounded twice by gunfire in West Oakland for no apparent reason. "Except for my own block, I try to stay off the street. Just go from Point A to Point B and watch your back every step of the way."

It's not an idle fear. Oakland police said at least three teenage boys were killed in 2006 in separate, unsolved cases in which they apparently were mistaken for members of a rival gang or group. In all three killings -- of Ever Ramos, Jaee Logan and Andrew Porter -- police said the victims had no ties to gangs or neighborhood drug crews. In some other cases -- homicides and nonfatal shootings -- police said mistaken identity was likely, but they weren't ready to rule out all other motives.

The problem is not limited to Oakland. Richmond police report that Omar Villalobos, 31, a recent immigrant, was shot to death in October when he apparently was mistaken for a gang member because he was wearing red.

"We have a lot of mistaken-identity cases where people assume by how you dress, where you hang out or even your ethnicity that you must be part of a gang," said Richmond police Lt. Mark Gagan. "It's not like they mistake you for another person. It's more like they assume you are part of the gang lifestyle when you're not."

Police say that in most street shootings, the gunman knows the identity of his intended target. But police said an assailant sometimes will start shooting based on a hasty presumption that the targeted person is part of a rival gang or a potential threat. In other cases, gunmen may open fire from a passing car and spray a street corner simply because it's where rivals often hang out.

The victims in these cases are nearly always young African American and Latino men. For them, navigating their way around Oakland can be a treacherous undertaking. The Chronicle interviewed 15 young men about their experiences, and most reported losing friends or relatives to violence and close calls of their own.

David Lewis, 17, a senior at Castlemont High School in Oakland, said he has been cautious ever since gunfire erupted outside his cousin's 13th birthday party in 2004.

"Somebody drove up and saw people leaving the party and just started shooting," said Lewis. "I dropped (to the ground) and wasn't hit. But it was close."

D'Andre Johnson, 19, grew up in East Oakland and said he never felt safe until he moved to Fairfield six months ago.

"It's the first time in my life when I can just take a walk and I'm not worried about a stray bullet or some fool who wants to shoot me to buff up his street reputation," said Johnson, who works as a peer counselor at Youth Uprising community center in East Oakland.

Johnson said he was nearly shot when a car drove up to him slowly in East Oakland, the window was rolled down on the passenger side, and someone opened fire.

"I have no idea why he was shooting at me," said Johnson, shaking his head. "I still don't."

Johnson said he adopted a more clean-cut look in part to avoid getting shot, cutting off his shoulder-length braids and losing his flashy jewelry. Several young people said that the dreadlocks and teeth grills popularized by rappers also are associated with "grinders" or street corner drug dealers.

"There's a lot of guys grinding on corners with grills and dreads, and if you got a beef with one, don't look my way," Johnson said.

Jaee Logan might have been shot because of his dreadlocks, his family and friends said. A popular 14-year-old football player who was preparing to start Oakland Technical High School, Jaee was shot to death July 2 while waiting for a friend in the 800 block of 45th Street.

Jaee's father said witnesses told him that gunmen were looking for a young adult who wore deadlocks. They saw Jaee, who didn't normally frequent that area, and chased him for half a block until the 14-year-old collapsed from his gunshot wounds.

Investigators said the father's scenario might be correct, but they won't rule out other possible motives until they can get more evidence about the killers, who remain unidentified.

"I'm not sure why the shooter came to that corner," Sgt. Lou Cruz said. "There's nothing to indicate that (Jaee) was the personally intended target."

One year ago this week, Ever Ramos, 17, and two friends were walking to a convenience store near his home on Coolidge Avenue when someone in a white minivan drove up and asked him what neighborhood he was from. Ramos, who arrived from Honduras in 2004, apparently didn't understand the question. As he started to reply, someone in the van opened fire, killing Ramos and wounding his friends, police said.

Ramos, who was working construction and going to school part-time to improve his English, had no gang ties, but police said his killers might have assumed he was a member of the Norteños gang. In early 2006, there was a series of back-and-forth, nonfatal shootings between Norteños in the Fruitvale district and members of the Border Brothers gang, who claim turf near Seminary Boulevard in East Oakland.

With the Norteños wearing red, their longtime rival Sureños favoring blue and the Border Brothers in brown or black, young Latinos who want to avoid gang attire have limited fashion options.

"If you're a young Hispanic man in Oakland, the only safe color to wear is green" or white, said homicide Sgt. Brian Medeiros, who is investigating Ramos' death. "Anything else can get you killed."

Several young people said that is one reason so many young Latinos favor baggy white T-shirts.

"You want to be cool, but you want to be neutral," said Danny Mora, 21, a self-described former gang member who just transferred into UCBerkeley. "There are plenty of people in Oakland who get shot for what they wear or where they walk."

Mora said he swore off gang banging after more than five friends or acquaintances were killed in the past three years. He said some victims were shot because they were "in the life" as gang members or associates. But he said that others were killed or wounded without provocation.

Andrew Porter, 16, might have been killed in August because a gunman in East Oakland mistook him and his friends for a different group of young men. Porter, a starting linebacker at Oakland High School, and a group of fellow football players and friends had just gotten off a bus and were walking to a party on 82nd Avenue when someone starting shooting at the group without warning.

Porter's friends have no idea why he was shot. But police and some witnesses said that a member of an unrelated group of young teenagers that walked down 82nd might have mean-mugged a person hanging out across the street. Another possible theory is that Porter's group was targeted simply because no one in that neighborhood recognized them. Porter grew up near Lake Merritt, about four miles away.

At 6-foot-2 and a muscular 220 pounds, Barrow, the high school senior at McClymonds, doesn't look like someone with anything to fear. But after he was wounded by gunfire at ages 13 and 15 near his home in the Ghost Town neighborhood of West Oakland, he's very careful. He spends most of his free time in an after-school program called Bridge, where he wants to learn to produce hip-hop videos and CDs.

"The first time, they were just trying to hit anybody who was there. I don't think it was me in particular," Barrow said as he showed off his scars. "The second time was really scary. I don't know if they wanted to shoot me, you know, personally or they just wanted to shoot someone from Ghost Town to prove themselves, or something stupid.

"It's crazy out there, and I just want to stay alive."