CrimeWatch

OAKLAND (CBS 5 / AP) ― Residents in the city of Oakland gathered in grief Tuesday evening after a fourth police officer shot by a man wanted on a parole violation was taken off life support.

The brutal deaths of the officers have prompted an outpouring of sympathy, from makeshift memorials to donations to Tuesday evening's vigil that drew hundreds to the scene of the bloodshed.

A major city thoroughfare was closed down for the 6 p.m. vigil at the corner of 74th Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard, where Officer John Hege and another officer were shot Saturday during a traffic stop.

Hege was taken off life support Monday night and his heart, liver and kidneys removed, said Andrea Breaux of Alameda County Medical Center. The 41-year-old officer had been declared brain dead Sunday, but the hospital kept him on life support so his organs could be donated, in keeping with his wishes.

The officer's death brought to five the number of people killed in Saturday's confrontation, including the gunman.

"Oakland needs to be healed," Rev. John Clark of Praise Fellowship Church told the crowd gathered for the evening candlelight vigil. "Guns need to be laid down, and communication needs to be picked up."

But Mary Busby, an Oakland resident for 25 years, observed that "it's reached a point where we're asking ourselves, 'Can we knit this city back together?' as we try to make some sense out of this."

A public memorial service for the officers was scheduled for Friday at 11 a.m. at the Oracle Arena. Meanwhile, thousands of dollars in donations for the officers' families continued to pour in, including a $10,000 gift from a Southern California Indian tribe.

At Oakland police headquarters, so many cards, flowers and prayer candles had been left at the side entrance that people coming in and out of the building had to squeeze past the condolences.

Inside, a row of oversized floral displays perfumed the lobby. Nearby stood an easel bearing a black T-shirt printed with the words "Rest in Peace" and silkscreened images of the first three officers killed. By Tuesday afternoon, it had been replaced with another bearing Hege's picture, too.

Police said Hege and his partner, Sgt. Mark Dunakin, were the first to be gunned down when the two motorcycle officers pulled over parolee Lovelle Mixon on Saturday.

In the manhunt that followed, two more officers Sgt. Ervin Romans, 43, and Sgt. Daniel Sakai, 35 died when the city's SWAT team stormed an apartment where Mixon was hiding. Mixon also was killed in the shootout.

Acting Police Chief Howard Jordan commended a bystander who rushed to the aid of the officers shot at the traffic stop. Clarence Ellis tried to stop Dunakin's bleeding before first responders arrived, the chief said.

"He did an outstanding job, and he took action that most citizens probably would not take," Jordan said.

The day before the traffic stop, Oakland investigators had gotten information linking Mixon to the February rape of a 12-year-old girl. DNA found at the scene was a probable match to Mixon, police spokesman Jeff Thomason said.

California prison records show that authorities also had issued a warrant for Mixon's arrest after he missed a mandatory meeting with his parole officer on Feb. 19.

The incident has prompted California Attorney General Jerry Brown, a former Oakland mayor, to call for better monitoring of parole violators.

Prison and court records show Mixon, 26, had served nearly five years in state prison for assault with a firearm during an armed robbery in San Francisco. More recently, he served several months in prison last year for a parole violation.

Mixon also was a suspect in a December 2007 murder but was never charged because of lack of evidence, officials said.

Mixon's family members said he was upset that he was unable to find work, felt his parole officer was not helping him and feared he would be arrested for a parole violation.

During traffic stops, police often check vehicle records to find whether the driver has outstanding warrants. But police have not disclosed how exactly Saturday's shootings unfolded, citing a pending investigation.

"There will be a time and place later when we will discharge the results of our investigation," Thomason said.

"This incident is going to be looked at by law enforcement all over the country and around the world," he added. "This is going to be studied, and young officers as well as older officers are going to learn from this."

(Editor's note: Funds have been established in support of the families of the fallen officers and individual checks may be mailed to the Oakland Police Officers Association, attention Rennee Hassna, 555 Fifth St., Oakland, Ca, 94607. Checks can be made out to the following: Dunakin Children's Family Trust; Romans Children's Family Trust; and Sakai Family Trust.

Wire transfers may be made to directly to Merrill Lynch accounts: Dunakin Children's Family Trust, account No. 204-04065; Romans Children's Family Trust, account No. 204-04066; and Sakai Family Trust, account No. 204-04064.)

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)