Page One

Before setting out to buy groceries for his wife and 8-year-old son two Fridays ago, North Oakland resident Patrick McCullough made sure he had his wallet, keys and pistol. 

It was the gun, a Sig Sauer 230 semi-automatic pistol, he would use first.  

McCullough, 49, said that as he headed to his car parked in his driveway that day, about 15 youths appeared outside his house and one yelled, “There’s the snitch.” 

A fight ensued, McCullough said, recounting that the young male who called him a snitch punched him, while others pelted him with whatever they could find. Then, he said, the youth raced to where five friends were standing and told one, “Give me the pistol.” 

“As soon as I saw the one guy lift up his jersey and the other reach for a handle that’s when I shot him,” McCullough said. “I was aiming for his torso.” 

McCullough said he struck the juvenile in the arm. After the gunfire, McCullough said, the victim and his friends fled from his house to the adjacent corner of 59th Street and Shattuck Avenue. 

District Attorney James Lee said he has completed his investigation, but has not decided whether to press charges against McCullough, who was arrested and spent Friday night in jail. Lee said McCullough could be charged with assault with a firearm, carrying a concealed weapon in a public place or carrying a loaded weapon in a public place. 

Oakland police are urging Lee not to prosecute McCullough, who they say is a vital ally in their efforts to squelch drug dealing on 59th Street, right next to Bushrod Park. 

“The reason that Patrick was assaulted by these suspects is that he stands up to drug dealers in a way that normal citizens do not,” said Lt. Lawrence Green of the OPD. Through his Yahoo! discussion group, Green has mobilized members of the North Central Oakland Neighborhood Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) to pressure Lee not to prosecute McCullough.  

“I just have zero tolerance for this thug life,” said McCullough, who grew up on the southside of Chicago, served in the Navy for seven years and now works for the City of Berkeley as an electronics technician. “I just don’t think it’s acceptable at all.” 

McCullough said he often takes pictures of drug dealers in action and is quick to call the police and talk to officers in view of dealers. 

“I don’t hide it like a lot of people do around here,” he said. “If they call the police they won’t give their name or be seen talking to them in public.” 

Most of McCullough’s neighbors interviewed Sunday supported his action. “He’s been a positive activist for the neighborhood,” said Michael Frayne. “I can understand his frustration with seeing drug dealing at his corner.” 

But Tor Berg, who lives on McCullough’s block, said he was bothered by any form of gunplay in his neighborhood whether the shooter was a neighbor or a dealer. 

“If he misses the guy, then there’s a bullet flying down 59th Street and my daughter plays here,” he said. 

McCullough said he bought his gun after being attacked outside his home in 2003 by another local youth, Wayne Camper, and two associates. Months after the fight, Camper, whom police arrested for assault, was gunned down in what Oakland police believe was part of a border war between North Oakland and South Berkeley drug dealers. 

McCullough doesn’t have a permit for his gun. State law prohibits carrying a concealed or a loaded gun in a public place, but allows homeowners to carry a gun on their property, Lee said.  

“Realistically, given the threats he’s had, I don’t think it’s unreasonable for him to carry a weapon,” Lt. Green said. 

Don Link, chairperson of the NCPC, said no one in his group has ever suggested that members carry weapons. “Our strength is in the support neighbors give to each other and our partnership with the police,” he said. 

Link said 59th Street has long been considered a hot spot for drug dealing and rowdy behavior and that McCullough has been front and center in combating it since he moved there in 1994. McCullough has twice sued the city to make sure that officials didn’t remove a traffic barrier at 59th Street and Shattuck Avenue that kept motorists from speeding down the street. 

In recent years, neighbors have filed nuisance suits against two properties believed to be connected to the drug trade, neither of which McCullough joined. A second nuisance suit against one of the properties is now pending.  

Violent crime is on the decline in North Oakland, Lt. Green said. Last year, he said, there were two murders in the beat, compared to 12 in 2003 and 11 in 2002. 

Although other members of the NCPC photograph drug dealers and call the police, Link thinks drug dealers have singled out McCullough because he is African-American. 

“I’ve never known anyone else to be called a snitch,” he said. “Snitch means that you’re one of us and you’re snitching on us.” 

McCullough said that in addition to the two attacks, local youths whom he believe are connected to the drug trade have shot bullets into his house and his car, tossed a brick through his window, and yelled threats outside his home. 

Last week a man who went by the name Cornbread knocked on his door. “He told me that guys were talking about doing stuff to my family, but that he wanted to hear my side of the story,” McCullough said. 

Moving, he added, is currently out of the question. McCullough bought his home through a shared equity loan offered by Oakland that would require him to surrender a portion of the sale price to the city if he puts the house on the market before 2014.  

“We’re trapped,” McCullough said. “I’m not going to have those punks put me into the poorhouse.” He is planning to demand the city let him out of the contract. 

Since the attack, McCullough said he has been more vigilant in scoping out his block before he and his family leave the house and has received help from neighbors who keep an eye on his home. 

Green said the OPD has responded to the attack by making 59th Street the number one police priority for the western section of Oakland. McCullough said he has noticed stepped-up police presence, but understands there is only so much the police can do for him. 

“They can’t be here all the time,” he said. “It’s those critical few-minute periods when I’m vulnerable.”