Oakland chief asks FBI to probe fatal shooting

The Oakland Police Department has asked the FBI to open a federal civil rights investigation into the actions of two officers who say they mistook an electronic scale commonly used to weigh drugs for a handgun when they opened fire and killed the owner of a hair salon, the police chief said.

The federal agency and the U.S. attorney's office will look into whether the two officers violated the civil rights of Derrick Jones, 37, who was shot and killed Nov. 8 on Trask Street a block from his store in East Oakland, Police Chief Anthony Batts said Tuesday night at a meeting of the City Council's Public Safety Committee.

Batts said he had asked the FBI to conduct a parallel investigation with the department so the probe will be "transparent." He acknowledged the outcry that has erupted over the shooting and offered his condolences to the family of Jones, who was black.

"I say that with all sincerity, not just as a chief of police, but as an African American man and as a father, I understand your pain," the chief told Jones' family, who attended the meeting.

Jones' mother, Nellie Jones, told council members that her son was killed "at the hands of violent Oakland police. These inhumane acts of law enforcement have to cease. Excessive force is justice to gangsters hiding behind a badge and using a gun."

The two officers were dispatched to the East Oakland neighborhood in response to a 911 call from a woman who said Jones had choked and beaten her near the hair salon he owned on Bancroft Avenue. Jones' relatives say the woman was not a victim, but had harassed Jones after he spurned her romantically and had armed herself with a knife during the encounter.

When the officers arrived, Jones ran. He was on parole after serving almost five months in state prison last year for gun possession, and his family believes Jones feared his parole would be revoked unfairly because of the incident.

Scale and marijuana

When the officers caught up to Jones on the 5800 block of Trask, he reached for his waistband and the two shot him numerous times in the chest, police said.

The officers said they thought Jones had been reaching for a gun, but in fact he had a silver-colored scale measuring 3 by 5 inches, police said. Police also said he had marijuana in a glass jar in his pocket.

The department has declined to identify the officers. But sources identified them as Officers Eriberto Perez-Angeles, who has been with the department for three years and is a member of the SWAT team, and Omar Daza-Quiroz, who has four years on the force.

The Chronicle has learned that the same officers were involved in a fatal shooting more than two years ago.

Second fatal shooting

Lesly Allen, 21, died after being shot at the end of a chase July 19, 2008, during which he and another man allegedly threw drugs out of their car and crashed into a police car near the corner of Davis Street and Doolittle Drive in San Leandro.

Perez-Angeles, Daza-Quiroz and a third officer shot Allen and the driver after the suspects' car tried to run them over, sources said. Allen died two days later. Police said they had found a .40-caliber semiautomatic handgun in the car.

Batts' announcement that he has asked the FBI to step in came three days after he invited reporters and the public to attend a use-of-force seminar at the Police Department. It included a demonstration of its "shoot-don't shoot" simulator, in which officers have to decide whether the people they encounter are a threat and have to be shot.

Councilwoman attends

Among those who attended Saturday's seminar was City Councilwoman Desley Brooks.

At Tuesday night's meeting, she referred to the seminar and said it was important for police to remember that "people who are on probation or parole are residents of this city, and we cannot throw them under the bus. They are entitled to the protections of every other resident of this city."

Batts and other officials, including Mayor-elect Jean Quan, are expected to attend a conference today that the NAACP has called on alleged police brutality in Oakland. The group's national president, Benjamin Jealous, is among those scheduled to be at the 9:30 a.m. hearing at the Jack London Aquatic Center at 115 Embarcadero.