OAKLAND — California Freeway Patrol officers arrested a San Francisco man related to the deadly capturing Friday on Interstate 880 in Oakland of a person a number of studies have mentioned was a former Cal basketball Corridor of Famer.
Twenty-five-year-old Juan Angel Garcia of San Francisco was booked on the Alameda County Jail on suspicion of homicide in connection to the capturing, California Freeway Patrol officers mentioned in a information launch.
CHP investigators mentioned Garcia is answerable for capturing and killing a person whereas touring on Interstate 880, the most recent in a string of freeway shootings within the metropolis.
A number of sources together with veteran East Bay sportswriter Jeff Faraudo, ABC and Fox Information and former Main League Baseball participant Ruppert Jones have been figuring out the sufferer Saturday as former UC-Berkeley basketball standout Gene Ransom.
The CHP and the Alameda County sheriff-coroner’s workplace wouldn't verify the capturing sufferer’s identification Saturday night.
A UC-Berkeley spokesman mentioned the college hasn’t independently confirmed Ransom was the capturing sufferer however issued a press release in response to information studies.
“We're shocked to listen to the studies that Cal Athletics Corridor of Famer Gene Ransom has been recognized as a sufferer in a lethal freeway capturing,” the spokesman mentioned. “Our ideas are with Gene’s household and associates for this tragic loss. Gene was one of many best gamers in our males’s basketball program’s historical past, and he can be enormously missed.”
Firefighters discovered the person useless from an obvious gunshot wound at about 5:45 p.m. close to the Broadway off-ramp, mentioned Michael Hunt, a spokesperson for the Oakland Fireplace Division.
The CHP’s investigation revealed the sufferer had been northbound in a black Honda Civic on I-880 north of Oak Avenue. The suspect, in a black Lexus sedan, was additionally northbound on I-880 when he allegedly pulled as much as the Honda’s driver facet and fired into the car, hanging the sufferer at the least one time.
After being struck by gunfire, the sufferer veered the Honda to the suitable, the place it struck a guardrail and got here to a cease. The suspect fled. The sufferer was declared useless on the scene.
The CHP closed all northbound lanes of the freeway till about 10 p.m., main to just about hours of snarled site visitors.
Ransom was a prolific basketball participant at Cal and an vital member of the Berkeley group.
In line with an SI.com report by Faraudo, Ransom performed for coach Dick Edwards from 1975-76 by 1977-78, totaling 1,185 factors, averaging 14.8 factors over 80 video games. He began all three seasons and scored 17.0 per sport his last yr, as a junior.
He scored at the least 30 factors in a sport 3 times for the Bears, led the staff in assists all three seasons and averaged 2.3 steals per sport in 1977-78, Faraudo reported.
Ransom was chosen within the ninth spherical of the 1977 draft by the Golden State Warriors, however by no means performed in an NBA sport, Faraudo wrote.
The freeway capturing is the most recent of a number of related incidents in Oakland. Final month, an Alameda County sheriff’s recruit, 28-year-old David V. Nguyen, was fatally shot on Interstate 580 as he drove residence from the academy. Nguyen had been set to graduate this month, in response to authorities.
In November, a 23-month-old toddler from Fremont was killed by a stray bullet whereas his was driving on Interstate 880 in Oakland. That very same month, a passenger in an SUV was killed throughout a capturing on Interstate 80 close to the Bay Bridge toll plaza.