19-Year-Old Said to Be Angry Over Bailey’s Stories
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“A 19-year-old handyman at Your Black Muslim Bakery admitted to police Friday night that he ambushed and killed Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey, investigators said,” the Oakland Tribune reported on Saturday.
“Police said Devaughndre Broussard told them he killed Bailey because he was angry over stories the journalist had written about the bakery, its employees and leaders in the past. Investigators said Broussard also was concerned about stories that he thought Bailey might be working on,” said the story by Harry Harris, Kristin Bender and Kelly Rayburn.
“Bailey had apparently been working on a story about the group and its finances, authorities said.
“Broussard made the admission to Sgts. Derwin Longmire and Lou Cruz. Broussard had been arrested at his home Friday morning in the 1000 block of 59th Street in Oakland, where police recovered the shotgun that they believe was used to kill Bailey the day before.
“Police said Broussard had found out where Bailey lived and before the killing Friday morning had gone to the newspaper’s office to see if he was there. When he found that Bailey had not arrived at work yet, he began driving around in a van looking for him and spotted him in the 200 block of 14th Street, where he confronted him and shot him several times with the shotgun.
“Expended shotgun shells found at the scene were matched to the shotgun recovered at Broussard’s residence, police said. Broussard had worked at the bakery as a handyman and occasional cook for eight months before leaving in March to find other employment. But when he could not find a job he returned to the bakery about a month ago and was given a post again, police said.
“Broussard is currently on probation for a San Francisco robbery.”
A spokeswoman for the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, Calif., told Journal-isms that Broussard was booked at 4 a.m. Saturday on murder and weapons charges, and was being held without bond.
Henry K. Lee added on the San Francisco Chronicle Web site: “When he was 15, Broussard participated in a mentorship program at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business that was geared for disadvantaged Bay Area youth. Mentors sought to inspire youths “through challenging and fun business, finance and entrepreneurship curricula” according to the program’s Web site.
“Broussard was among three tenth-grade students who presented their top investment choices in a competition in which they began with a fictional one million dollars to invest and worked with a mentor to learn how to analyze target companies. “Broussard was mentored by Tony Brekke and won a $100 savings bond.
“‘I’m pretty shocked,’ Brekke said today of his former charge.”
In the New York Times on Saturday, Jesse McKinley wrote about a question posed to police:
“Asked whether there were any regrets about not moving faster to arrest the suspects before Mr. Bailey was killed, Assistant Chief Howard Jordan said that the Oakland Police Departmentâ??s resources were ‘very thin’ and that the long-term investigation involved the cooperation of neighboring departments.
“‘Today was the best day we had, that we could have done this with the coordination of our allied agencies,’ Mr. Jordan said. ‘We werenâ??t just kind of waiting around.’
“Mr. Jordan said it was ‘very disheartening’ to hear about Mr. Baileyâ??s killing, ‘and it was particularly disheartening to know it was connected to our investigation.'”
Funeral Mass Planned in Oakland on Wednesday
A funeral Mass open to the public will be celebrated for slain journalist Chauncey Bailey at 11 a.m. Wednesday at St. Benedict’s Catholic Church, 2245 82nd Ave. in Oakland, newspapers reported on Sunday.
In addition, the Oakland Tribune added, an educational fund is being established for Bailey’s son, “a little 13-year-old boy who he used to always bring into the Oakland Tribune newsroom . . . he was very proud of his boy,” as Tribune Managing Editor Martin G. Reynolds said on CNN’s “Nancy Grace” show.
The boy graduated from middle school and lived with his mother in Southern California, but Bailey remained a doting father across the miles, the mother, who wished to remain anonymous because of the nature of the crime, told the San Francisco Chronicle.
Meanwhile, “More than four dozen friends and city and county officials and religious leaders gathered on the sidewalk at 14th and Alice streets Saturday at the spot where Bailey was gunned down,” Henry K. Lee reported in Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle. “Oakland Minister Keith Muhammad, representing the Nation of Islam, was present, as were two members of the Guardian Angels.”
These friends and local officials “pledged to let the passion of his reporting serve as a guiding light in their lives,” Lee wrote.
“They said they were heartened that the suspected gunman . . . was in custody, but at the same time passed out flyers to urge people to come forward with information that would help bring the alleged killer to justice.
“The event was also held as a ‘community mobilization’ to urge residents to contact police when they have information about killings.
“Speakers said fears about being a snitch need to be overcome and that the community must help police solve the city’s homicide crisis. Five more people have been killed in Oakland since Bailey’s slaying Thursday.”
A story Sunday by the Tribune’s Angela Hill and Harry Harris said that in Devaughndre Broussard’s confession to police, he told detectives he considered himself “a good soldier” when he shot and killed Bailey for writing negative stories about the bakery. [Added Aug. 5]
- Editorial, Contra Costa (Calif.) Times: Brazen assassination
- Sandra Gonzales and Kim Vo, San Jose Mercury News: Controversial Oakland bakery linked to journalist’s slaying
