A woman was taken into custody on Saturday and a man was arrested Monday afternoon; both arrests took place in the same West Oakland neighborhood. Police are still trying to determine exactly what their relationship is, but they say both could soon be facing robbery and murder charges.
It was the surveillance video, broadcast repeatedly around the Bay Area, that police say helped crack the case. Less than a week ago, homicide investigators were pleading for the public's help.
"I want them to imagine if that was their family member who lost their life in a senseless fashion, would they want somebody to call in on those people?" said Oakland police Sgt. Mike Gantt on July 21.
Now, police say thanks to those calls, the two people in the grainy video seen just minutes before the murder are both in custody. The man in the hooded sweatshirt is 24-year-old Oakland resident George Huggins. His companion is 33-year-old Althea Housley. Investigators say Housley admitted to taking part in the robbery turned homicide that left Jinghong Kang dead.
"As we suspected in the beginning, this was a robbery that went bad and the gentleman ended up losing his life in this senseless manner over a very small amount of cash," said Oakland police spokeswoman Officer Holly Joshi.
It turned out to be a robbery for just $17 dollars. Kang was in town from Virginia for a job interview at Google. He had a late night teeth cleaning at a dental office on Webster Street just before the shooting. Police say he was inside his car when the robbers approached him.
Huggins was arrested on Curtis Street in West Oakland on Monday. Neighbors say a resident who recognized him held him down until officers arrived.
Police believe both Huggins and Housley were involved in another robbery and shooting in June where it was a similar story of a man and woman sitting inside a parked car. This time, investigators say they couldn't have cracked the case without the public's help.
"The community responded and we would not have been able to solve these cases without that," said Joshi.
A $20,000 reward for information leading to arrests in this case was up for grabs. Police say those who called in with tips that resulted in these two being in custody, could be eligible to collect that cash.
