A murder right outside of our Church in Oakland in broad Daylight.....

[FrenchieCat]

:(

G.E.D. student killed outside Oakland church
Updated: 11/17/2010 02:06:12 PM PST

Wilson, 46, had been on parole and living in an Oakland halfway house while taking G.E.D. classes at the Allen Temple Baptist Church campus, police said. Around 11:45 a.m., while attending one of those classes, Wilson got a cell phone call that prompted him to run outside, where he was shot by a gunman who escaped in a car in the 1300 block of 85th Avenue, according to police and church officials.

Reem El-Rifai is the associate director of Allen Temple Housing and Economic

Development Corporation, which partners with the church and runs the G.E.D. program.

El-Rifai said Wilson had been in the class with 10 or 15 other students when his cell phone rang.

"He said, 'Hold on, hold on, I'm coming,' and after he rushed outside, the students heard two shots," El-Rifai said.

Wilson fell to the ground and died at the foot of the large wooden cross just outside the church's 85th Avenue gate.

"He was excited to be here," El-Rifai said. "He'd been calling his friends to tell them about the program. It's so sad to see somebody who was willing -- many people aren't willing to be helped -- but this guy, God rest his soul, was willing to take the help."

Mary Turner works with a food program at the church and said Wilson had been eating with her since he started coming around, roughly three weeks ago.

Investigators had no suspects in custody late Tuesday afternoon and were still trying to establish a motive for the killing, which was Oakland's 77th reported homicide this year. At the same time in 2009 there had been 95 reported homicides in the city.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/top-stories/ci_16628724?source=rss

[Number23]

1. Oh no

And he was getting his GED and trying to turn his life around. This is so awful.

Is your church planning some type of service?

[FrenchieCat]

2. I'm sure that they will.

The church certainly is in a neigborhood where something like this could easily happen. We're talking about East Oakland here....not exactly the Hamptons. :(

The city is large, but 70+ homocides is a lot, especially since most of them are Black on Black killings.....even if that number is less than at its height a few years back, when it reached way over the 100+!

He may have been turning his life around, but who knows what was in his past, in terms of folks he had previously dealt with, who may not have wanted him to get out of whatever he had been involved in. It's kind of evident that it wasn't random....which would have been more worrisome, IMO.

All in all, a very sad and tragic way to go....


Sad, this hard life that some lead. :cry: