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Police: Bailey's Confessed Killer Didn't Act Alone

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Police: Bailey's Confessed Killer Didn't Act Alone

  8 Murders In 4 Days; Surge Concerns Oakland Police
 CBS 5 CrimeWatch

OAKLAND (CBS 5 / KCBS / AP / BCN) ― A 19-year-old handyman for a Black Muslim splinter group who police said confessed to murdering an Oakland journalist didn't act alone, but investigators said Monday they are still piecing together exactly how the murder plan was developed.

Devaughndre Broussard, one of seven people arrested in raids last week on Your Black Muslim Bakery, was to be formally charged with Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey's murder within the next 24 to 36 hours. A court arraignment could come as early as Tuesday, authorities said.

Oakland Police Assistant Chief Howard Jordan said Broussard was upset about a story Bailey was working on involving the bakery group's finances, although he would not go into details. YBMB, founded in 1968, is currently undergoing bankruptcy proceedings in federal court in Oakland.

Jordan also said police believe Broussard likely acted on orders to kill Bailey, who was ambushed on 14th near Alice streets last Thursday morning while he walked from his home near Lake Merritt to the Post's offices in downtown Oakland. Witnesses said a man wearing a mask shot Bailey three times and then fled.

"We don't believe that he (Broussard) worked on his own. We're still working on how that plan was developed," Jordan said.

Broussard was on probation for his Jan. 26, 2006, guilty plea to being one of a group of people who robbed a Muni bus in San Francisco, according to San Francisco Chief Assistant District Attorney Russell Giuntini.

Giuntini said Broussard received three years felony probation and served one year in the San Francisco County Jail.

He said Broussard was accused of violating his probation on May 31 when San Francisco police saw him wandering around the Western Addition. But Giuntini said a judge released Broussard after probation officials said he was being cooperative with them.

The brazenness of the Bailey attack shocked many, prompting calls for community mobilization against violence in the city. Over the weekend, community leaders gathered to mourn Bailey -- a longtime reporter for the Oakland Tribune before becoming editor of the Post, a weekly newspaper geared toward the Bay Area black community, earlier this year.

Bailey's funeral is scheduled for Wednesday at 11 a.m. at St. Benedict's Church at 2245 82nd Ave. in Oakland.

"The public has every right to be upset because he was an innocent man trying to write a story to educate the public on the things that were happening in an organization that they have the right to know," Jordan said.

Police continue to investigate the connection between YBMB group members to Bailey's slaying and two older murders.

Jordan said police think the people responsible for murdering Bailey also were responsible for the murders of Odell Roberson, Jr., 31, on July 8 and Michael Wills, 36, on July 12 because it appears that the same gun was used in all three incidents.

But he said no charges will be filed for the Roberson and Wills murders at this time because police are still gathering evidence.

"There's still a lot left to do in terms of developing leads," Jordan said.

Charges were expected to be filed Tuesday against two other affiliates of the bakery group for participating in a
kidnapping and robbery that occurred in East Oakland in May.

Police identified the suspects as the younger brother of the bakery's chief executive officer, Joshua Bey, 20, and Tamon Halfin, 21, who is currently on five years' probation.

Broussard, Bay and Halfin were among seven people arrested Friday, a day after Bailey's slaying, during law-enforcement raids at the bakery and three other locations. The business was subsequently shut down by county health inspectors because of unsanitary conditions discovered during the raid.

The raids on the bakery organization, founded nearly 40 years ago with a mission to empower Oakland's poor, capped off a yearlong investigation into an alleged series of violent crimes that police said were connected to the group.

Lt. Ersie Joyner said the violent incidents appear to be over financial and power struggles involving the bakery. Many of the crimes are still unsolved, he said.

The bakery group's CEO, Yusuf Bey IV, the 21-year-old son of the bakery's founder, was arrested in the raids on an outstanding warrant for three counts of assault with a deadly weapon stemming from an April 2006 incident in which he allegedly tried to run down several bouncers with his BMW after being thrown out of the New Century Theater, a strip club on San Francisco's Larkin Street.

A San Francisco judge issued a bench warrant for Bey on July 12 after he failed to appear at a pretrial hearing. Bey's trial in San Francisco is scheduled to begin on Aug. 17, Giuntini said.

Bey also pleaded not guilty last year to charges that he was the ringleader of a Black Muslim group caught by surveillance cameras in November 2005 smashing up two Oakland liquor stores for selling alcohol to the black community.

Bey faces four felony charges in Solano County, too, for allegedly fraudulently obtaining a car on Oct. 14, 2005, by using someone else's identification to get credit to buy the vehicle.

In addition, Bey faces four other unrelated cases in Alameda County: felony vehicle theft and misdemeanor charges of petty theft, resisting arrest and vehicle theft.

Jordan has previously said that he believes Bey was involved in Bailey's murder, but he said Monday that Bey's involvement in that murder as well as other crimes "is still under investigation."

In the meantime, Bey was being held in the Alameda County Jail on $375,000 bail on the warrant out of San Francisco.

Police are still searching for three other men affiliated with the bakery who are suspects in various crimes.

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

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