OAKLAND — An Alameda County judge ruled Wednesday that three of the four men charged in the killing of Oakland police veteran Tuan Le must stand trial for murder in the officer’s death.
Judge Delia Trevino found enough evidence exists for the murder cases to continue against Mark Demetrious Sanders, Allen Starr Brown and Sebron Russell, who are accused of planning a series of break-ins on Dec. 29 at a marijuana grow house along the city’s waterfront. The final heist that morning ended in gunfire when undercover and uniformed officers converged on the warehouse, resulting in the first on-duty killing of an Oakland police officer in nearly 15 years.
Trevino, however, tossed the murder charge against a fourth defendant, Marquise Cooper, who was alleged to have been the lookout for the burglars while parked across Interstate 880 from the warehouse.
After the hearing, Cooper’s attorney said he was “extremely pleased” with the judge’s decision.
“We believe in Mr. Cooper’s limited role in this case,” said the attorney, Ernie Castillo. “He should not be on the hook for the conduct of others.”
The ruling came as prosecutors and defense attorneys sparred over whether the burglars knew that Le was a police officer — a key contention, given the five-year police veteran was working undercover, wearing plainclothes and driving an unmarked white pickup the morning he was shot.
“We have no idea if he even knows that shots are being fired…let alone that the person shots are being fired at is a peace officer,” David Knutsen, who is representing Russell, argued to Trevino during the weeklong hearing.
Castillo said Cooper couldn’t even see what was happening at the burglarized dispensary.
Still, prosecutor Elgin Lowe stressed that the men had been warned that police were in the area, and must have known that the pickup driven by Le was an officer working undercover.
“They’re all acting like they’re fleeing the police,” Lowe told the judge. He added that “this is a group that’s done this frequently – at least more than once. They all know how dangerous this can be.”
The ruling capped an evidentiary hearing that saw prosecutors detail their case publicly for the first time — presenting a mix of surveillance footage, social media postings and police interviews with Cooper and Brown that, they claim, tie the men to the break-ins and the killing.
Prosecutors say Le and his partner, Donald McKinney, first visited the warehouse shortly after 1 a.m. on Dec. 29, when multiple burglars forced their way inside the building and triggered a security system that alerted the building’s owner of the break-in. The call ended with Le and McKinney following a Honda Civic for miles and collecting the car’s license plate information — which later showed it belonging to Russell’s romantic partner.
Le and McKinney — wearing plainclothes and using a nondescript white Nissan Frontier — returned at about 4:30 a.m. to the warehouse on the 400 block of Embarcadero after at least seven burglars appeared to once again trip the security system.
During that encounter, Le pulled the truck into the warehouse’s parking lot and watched as the burglars streamed out of the building, according to surveillance footage of the break-ins. One of them briefly pointed a gun at the officers’ unmarked truck before jumping into a vehicle and pulling away, McKinney testified.
As several vehicles fled, Le pulled his pickup behind one of the cars and followed it on Embarcadero. That’s when another undercover officer radioed McKinney to warn him that a black car had started tailing the officers.
Speaking in a measured tone while taking the witness stand, McKinney recalled confusion at what first sounded like a couple “thuds,” followed by window glass shattering around them.
In a video captured by McKinney on his work cell phone, a barrage of muffled gunshots could be heard from inside the officers’ unmarked truck before it crashed into a parked car along Embarcadero.
“Help! Help! Tuan is hit!” McKinney could be heard yelling on the video after the crash. “Hey, I got an officer down,” he added, before yelling “Tuan” over and over.
After being freed from the truck, Le was taken to Highland Hospital, where he died several hours later. Investigators later found at least 22 bullet casings, a police investigator testified Thursday afternoon.
Lowe told the judge that investigators later found a bullet strike mark on McKinney’s headrest – signaling that “if he hadn’t ducked down, we might have had two homicides.”
All four men also were ordered to stand trial on a slew of burglary charges related to the break-ins at the marijuana grow house. They are back in court Aug. 28.
Sanders, Brown and Russell remain held without bail at the Santa Rita Jail. After dismissing Cooper’s murder charge, Trevino set his bail at $75,000.
Check back for updates to this developing story.