Pubdate: Sat, 13 Jan 2001
Source: Alameda Times-Star (CA)
Copyright: 2001 MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers
Contact:  P.O. Box 28884 ,Oakland, CA 94612
Fax: (510) 208-6477
Website: http://www.timesstar.com/
Authors: Angela Hill and Harry Harris, Staff Writers
Note: STAFF WRITERs Jason Bono, Laura Counts and Jill Tucker contributed to 
this report.

ROOKIE COPS KILL FELLOW OFFICER BY MISTAKE

Officials Probe Circumstances Of Shooting

OAKLAND -- Oakland police officers, black bands wrapped around their badges 
Friday, mourned the loss of their colleague William "Willie" Wilkins Jr., a 
veteran narcotics undercover officer who was shot and killed in the line of 
duty late Thursday night by two rookie officers in a tragic case of 
mistaken identity.

Investigators were still trying to figure out just what happened that night 
in the driveway of a house at 9021 B St. near 91st Avenue in the Elmhurst 
district.

It was unclear whether the two young, uniformed officers -- who fired 11 
rounds at Wilkins -- mistook Wilkins for a suspected car thief they had 
been chasing. Or whether they thought they had come upon an unrelated 
robbery in progress, and saw Wilkins, in plainclothes, pointing a gun at 
another man.

It has also not been determined why the two officers -- who had been on the 
force for less than a year -- were not aware there was a plainclothes 
detective on the scene, or why Wilkins did not make it clear to them he was 
a policeman.

Whatever the details of this fatal confusion, Wilkins, a seven-year veteran 
of the department, became Oakland's first homicide of the year and the 46th 
Oakland police officer to die in the line of duty since 1867.

Wilkins died from his wounds at Highland Hospital early Friday morning. He 
lived in Brentwood with his wife, Kelly, and their 11-month-oldson. Funeral 
services will be held Thursday.

Most recently, Wilkins had been part of the Alameda County Narcotics Task 
Force. Fellow members of that team said Friday that Wilkins "loved being a 
cop" and shined in his role as an undercover officer.

A shaken Alameda County Sheriff's Deputy Steve Angeja, who mentored Wilkins 
on the task force, called him a "great undercover officer."

"He loved his job," Angeja said. "If he could work 24 hours a day, he would."

The two young officers, whose names have not been released, were 
immediately put on administrative leave. They were so distraught they have 
not been able to provide statements, said homicide commander Lt. Paul Berlin.

"We really feel that we've lost three officers today," Berlin said.

The two had been on the force less than a year. One is 29 and had been an 
Oakland officer since February. The other is 23 and started on the job in 
June. The investigation will continue, officials say, and events will 
become clearer as the officers' statements are taken.

The latest information Friday came from Mike Rains, an attorney for the two 
officers, who said the two had been patrolling together in the same marked 
police car at about 11 p.m. Thursday and were called to the neighborhood to 
help on a car theft call.

They stopped when they saw Wilkins and another man.

"They did not believe it was the same auto theft incident, but another 
incident that involved an altercation," Rains said.

Wilkins, dressed in jeans, boots, a brown jacket and knit cap, had been 
working on a special operations surveillance for the Crime Response Team -- 
not a unit he was normally assigned to, but working on it as a favor to 
other officers.

"That's no surprise," Angeja said. "If another agency needed an undercover 
officer, he'd be over there in a minute."

Police believe Wilkins had finished his other assignment and was driving 
back to the station, Berlin said. "We believe he saw a car traveling at 
high speed, called in the license plate and discovered it was a stolen 
vehicle," Berlin said.

Wilkins apparently gave chase, but it is not clear whether other marked 
cars were also involved. The suspect apparently bailed out of the car near 
91st Avenue and D Street and started running through front yards. Wilkins 
followed on foot and caught up with the man two blocks away in Kim Davis' 
driveway on B Street.

That's when the two uniformed officers came along.

"As they drove into the area, they saw two males," Rains said. "One was 
backing up out of the yard area of a home and another male was walking 
toward him at a fast gait, more of a pursuit-type thing."

They got out of the police car about 100 feet away from Wilkins, saw him 
approaching the other man with his gun drawn and making a "kicking motion" 
toward the man, according to Rains.

As they got closer, Rains said, "One of the officers screamed, 'He's got a 
gun.' And both saw a chrome-and-blue steel handgun that was not like a 
regular police weapon."

Rains said at least one officer did yell "Police, put the weapon down."

The two officers thought he was ignoring them and was about to shoot the 
other man, Rains said. "Believing the other man's life was in jeopardy, 
they both fired several rounds at (Wilkins)."

Both rookie officers fired their standard-issue 40-caliber Glocks, striking 
Wilkins in the left side and chest. Two others struck the foundation of the 
house. Two more went through the wall and into Kim Davis' living room, one 
ending up in a blanket on a couch, where her 21-year-old son had been 
watching TV just a few minutes before.

Davis, 42, and her daughters Brigitte, 18, and Taylor, 5, had been sleeping 
in the back bedrooms. Her son had just left for his own home. She was 
jolted awake by the snapping sounds of rapid gunfire.

She ran out into the living room and peered out the front window, where she 
was met with a surreal scene.

It was a cold, still night. Her motion-sensor security light had kicked on. 
She saw Wilkins upright, but in a strange stance at the edge of her 
driveway, knees bent, leaning to one side, a uniformed officer's gun still 
trained on him from about 20 to 30 feet away, Davis said.

Wilkins stayed on his feet for just a moment, she said, then slowly 
crumpled to the ground. Within seconds other plain-clothes officers 
approached and recognized their comrade, shouting, "It's Willie. Oh my God, 
it's Willie!" Davis said.

Several more officers quickly appeared on foot and gathered around him, 
some in uniform, some in plainclothes. They started giving him CPR, saying 
"Breathe, man. Hang in there man." Some were crying, Davis said.

Wilkins was still conscious. Davis said she heard him-scream at them to get 
off him. He didn't say anything more after that, she added.

The ambulance arrived quickly, she said. Paramedics removed Wilkins' bloody 
clothing to get at the wounds. Davis said Wilkins wore a navy blue 
jumpsuit-type police uniform under his street clothes, but no bullet-proof 
vest. She saw bullet holes in the left side of his body.

Wilkins was taken to Highland, where trauma doctors and nurses worked 
vigorously to save his life. He had been shot five times, said a hospital 
nurse.

A shaken Oakland City Manager Robert Bobb spent several tense hours in the 
hospital with Wilkins' wife, his brother, and about 50 officers, waiting 
for news. A priest and a police chaplain were there. Wilkins' 11-month-old 
son was not.

"It was a very sad and stressful several hours," Bobb said. "The family 
members were so traumatized, the members of the law enforcement family were 
so traumatized.

"He appeared to have lost a lot of blood," he said. "The physicians came 
out once and said they'd closed at least one of the areas. We felt a small 
sigh of relief. Then they brought a hospital bed to the waiting area, the 
kind they use to take someone out after surgery, and it was another sigh of 
relief. The entire ER worked so hard."

Wilkins was pronounced dead at 2:22 a.m. No other officers witnessed the 
shooting. The car theft suspect was taken into custody and may be able to 
provide other details, police said. Wilkins' gun will be examined to see 
whether it had been fired.

It has been two years -- almost to the day -- since the last Oakland 
officer was killed. It was Jan. 10, 1999, when Officer James Williams Jr. 
was shot and killed by a sniper firing from a freeway overpass.

STAFF WRITERs Jason Bono, Laura Counts and Jill Tucker contributed to this 
report.
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