Thread: CA-Boy shot in foot outside service for Oakland teen killed

Boy shot in foot outside service for Oakland teen killed by police
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

(03-25) 11:19 PDT OAKLAND -- A 13-year-old boy was shot in the foot outside a rosary service for a teenage boy killed by Oakland police after he allegedly pointed a sawed-off rifle at officers.

The 13-year-old was shot about 8:30 p.m. Monday outside St. Anthony's Church on the 1500 block of 16th Avenue in Oakland's San Antonio district. He was taken to Children's Hospital Oakland.

Police said the boy, whose name was not released, had been shot by one of several men who opened fire on a group outside the church, then fled. The assailants were believed to be gang members or affiliates upset that the mourners, many of them members of a rival gang, were in their territory, said police spokesman Officer Roland Holmgren.

The mourners were attending a rosary service for 15-year-old Jose Luis Buenrostro, who was shot and killed by three officers of the police gang unit Wednesday when he allegedly pointed a sawed-off rifle at them near 79th Avenue and Rudsdale Street in East Oakland.

Relatives of Buenrostro have questioned the officers' actions, saying they never knew the teenager to carry a gun.

At a news conference Friday, police took the unusual step of showing reporters a picture of the rifle that they said Buenrostro had been carrying. Authorities said Buenrostro had ties to a local street gang.

Monday's shooting was the second incident involving mourners for the boy. Early Sunday, police arrested two men at a makeshift memorial for Buenrostro on suspicion of weapons violations.

Officers said Marco Mendez, 32, had been holding a loaded AR-15 assault rifle and that Andre Piazza, 26, had a loaded AK-47 assault rifle with a high-capacity magazine in his car.

E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com.

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OAKLAND
2 arrested on gun charges at memorial
Henry K. Lee

Tuesday, March 25, 2008


Oakland police arrested two men with assault rifles over the weekend at a makeshift memorial for a 15-year-old boy who was shot and killed by officers after he allegedly pointed a sawed-off rifle at them, authorities said Monday.

Marco Mendez, 32, was arrested about 3:10 a.m. Sunday while standing on the 7800 block of Rudsdale Street in East Oakland holding a loaded AR-15 assault rifle, said Officer Roland Holmgren, a police spokesman. Mendez tried to flee but officers chased him down, Holmgren said.

At the same time, Holmgren said, police arrested Andre Piazza of Oakland after officers found a loaded AK-47 assault rifle with a high-capacity magazine on the front passenger seat of a Nissan Maxima he was driving. Piazza, 26, had asked officers to move their patrol cars so he could move the Nissan, Holmgren said.

Both men were gathered at the memorial for Jose Luis Buenrostro, who was shot and killed by three gang unit officers Wednesday when he allegedly pointed a sawed-off rifle at them near 79th Avenue and Rudsdale.

Mendez is on probation for drug offenses and has ties to a local street gang, and Piazza is on parole for drug convictions, authorities said. The two men will probably face federal gun charges, Holmgren said.

Relatives of Buenrostro's interviewed after he was killed expressed skepticism that he had a gun or, if he did, that he had pointed it at police. At a news conference Friday, police took the unusual step of showing reporters a picture of the rifle that they said Buenrostro had been carrying.

This article appeared on page B - 3 of the San Francisco Chronicle

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