Features

Teenage boy kills mother’s ex

Daily Planet Wire Service
Thursday October 10, 2002

OAKLAND – A 14-year-old Oakland boy killed his mother's ex-boyfriend with a butcher knife on Monday as the man was attacking the boy's mother and sister, police said. 

The confrontation occurred on Monday at about 8:30 p.m. in a residence in the 1200 block of 62nd Avenue, when Mandi B. Coleman, 32, a barber from Pinole, showed up at his ex-girlfriend's home, according to police. 

“[Coleman] was very angry and assaulted her and grabbed her by the hair and was pulling her head back,” homicide Lt. Brian Thiem said. 

At that point, the woman's 12-year-old daughter jumped in and poked at Coleman with a broom in an attempt to stop the attack. 

Police said that Coleman hurled the girl to the floor and stomped on her face. 

The mother then grabbed the phone in an effort to call 911, but Coleman yanked the phone cord from the wall, police said. 

The woman's 14-year-old son then went to the kitchen and retrieved a butcher knife, police said. 

“While [Coleman] was engaged once again in assaulting the woman, the boy stabbed Mr. Coleman in the back,” Thiem said. The identities of the woman and her two children were not released. 

The woman then grabbed the children, fled from the residence and called the police from a payphone down the street. Coleman staggered from the home and ultimately fell to the ground and bled to death, police said. 

Thiem said homicide investigators spent the entire evening of the slaying interviewing the woman, her children and neighbors. After reviewing the case with a deputy district attorney by phone in the middle of the night, police decided not to seek prosecution of the boy. 

“We basically patted the 14-year-old boy on the head and told his mother to take him home,” Thiem said. “At this time everything points to a justifiable homicide.” 

Thiem would not talk about whether Coleman had a criminal history although he said the man was “known to police.” 

The slaying was the city's 86th homicide this year, police said.  

The city recorded 87 homicides in all of last year.