This latest shooting comes on the heels of the death of 8-year-old Alaysha Carradine, who was at a sleepover last month when someone outside shot into the apartment. And two years ago this Thursday, 3-year-old Carlos Nava was murdered in his stroller.
Twenty-year-old Andrew Thomas and his one-year-old son Drew Jackson were visiting from Fresno. They came for a family birthday party and were staying for the funeral of a cousin who was shot and killed last weekend.
The two were staying at Thomas' aunt's house, on the 400 block of Ghormley Avenue. Konya Baylis says it was late and everyone was asleep when someone came into the backyard and started shooting into the house. The bullets hit Thomas and the baby just before 3 a.m. Wednesday.
"He was still breathing when they took him up out of here," she said. "I called 911, and she was telling me to stay on the phone and then he was still kinda breathing and then he turned over then he laid down and blood was kinda coming out of his mouth."
"The Oakland Police Department is gonna dedicate every resource we have available to bringing resolution to this and catching the people responsible for this," OPD Chief Sean Whent said.
Police have not announced a motive for Thomas' murder, but have said they believe at least one gunman came to the back of this house and fired off shots that hit both Thomas and his infant son.
Baylis doesn't know who fired the shots, but believes it may be related to the shooting death of Thomas' cousin, 18-year-old Al Rivera, who was shot in the 8000 block of Ney Street on Saturday.
"I think the shootings are possibly connected because Andrew and Al hung out together," she said.
But Baylis said she doesn't know why someone would have been upset at Thomas and Rivera, because she thinks they were good people.
Baylis said Thomas, who would have turned 21 on Sept. 6, "wasn't a bad kid" and had attended Castlemont High School in East Oakland. She said he didn't graduate but was planning to take general education development courses to complete his high school education.
She added that Rivera "was a good person, too, and didn't get into too much trouble." Baylis says he was attending a private high school in Oakland and was planning to graduate in December.
Baylis said her sister, who is Thomas' mother, decided to move to Fresno four years ago after Thomas' cousin, 21-year-old Webster Johnson IV, was fatally shot in the 1900 block of 90th Avenue in East Oakland at about 3:53 p.m. on Aug. 27, 2009.
She says now she's in the difficult position of remaining strong for the rest of the family, who are simply falling to pieces.
(Bay City News contributed to this story)
