Features

Police identify
fatal shooting victim 

OAKLAND – Police today identified the man shot Sunday in the 9600 block of Edes Avenue in Oakland as either Lawrence Baldridge or Keith Jamerson. 

An Oakland homicide detective was not sure why this man had two names. "Perhaps he had an alias or had changed his identity,'' the detective suggested. 

It was the 70th homicide in Oakland so far this year. 

The man was shot numerous times around 2:30 p.m. Sunday and was pronounced dead at Highland Hospital Police are currently looking for the man's killer, described as a black male, 32 to 35 years of age with a muscular build and balding.  

Park reports two drowning
deaths in less than a week  

PLEASANTON – East Bay Parks officials are "continuing business as usual but with heightened awareness'' after the second drowning death in less than a week, according to the park's aquatics manager Don McCormick. 

“We're satisfied with our program and are not making changes at this point,” McCormick said Monday, noting that the recent heat wave has drawn more people than usual to the parks' swimming areas. 

Two fishermen in float tubes discovered a man's body floating in the waters at Shadow Cliffs Regional Park in Pleasanton Monday night at 8:45. 

The coroner is still trying to determine whether drugs or alcohol were involved in the drowning of the man, who had light brown hair and blue eyes, was between 25 and 40.years old and nearly 6 feet tall. 

His body had been floating in the water for a day or two, according to park officials. Last Tuesday, an 8-year-old boy was found floating unconscious in 4 feet of water at the Cull Canyon Reservoir. He was pronounced dead at the hospital. 

The Shadow Cliffs drowning Monday brings the death toll in the park's lakes to four this year, above the historical average of between two to three deaths a year since the 1960s. 

Larry Moss, the park's risk manager, pointed out that the park is not required by state law to even post lifeguards at lakes. "We do that as a public service,'' Moss said, adding that park lifeguards have successfully rescued 300 people this year from park lakes, where the water is often murky. 

The most common drowning victims, Moss said, are adults that have been drinking alcohol or children that do not swim well. 

“We wish we could prevent these drownings,” Moss said. “Everybody here takes it personally.” 

Anyone with information on the Shadow Cliffs drowning victim is asked to call Park Sgt. Jon King, 881-1833. 

UC professor wins
World Food Prize 

A Cuban farmer’s son was named winner Sunday of the 2002 World Food Prize for helping to transform depleted tropical soil into productive agricultural land. 

Pedro Sanchez, a visiting professor of tropical resources at the University of California, Berkeley, will receive $250,000 in recognition of his work that includes finding ways to neutralize acidity in Brazilian soil and to improve nitrogen flow in blighted farmland in Africa. 

Sanchez, 62, is the former director general of the International Center for Research in Agroforestry in Nairobi, Kenya. 

He left Cuba during Fidel Castro’s revolution, earning a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from Cornell University. 

The award was announced at the International Horticultural Congress in Toronto, Canada, by Kenneth M. Quinn, president of the Des Moines-based World Food Prize Foundation.