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Basketball Threat Leads to Cold Case Murder Bust

By Richard Brenneman
Friday February 22, 2008

Berkeley police arrested two men they say killed 23-year-old Wayne Drummond Jr. of Oakland in 2006 following a fight outside a Telegraph Avenue bar. 

Brandon Crowder, 20, of Oakland, and Nicholas Beaudreaux, 22, of Richmond were each charged with one count of murder Tuesday by the Alameda County District Attorney’s office. 

What led to the arrests was a threat made during up a pick-up basketball game at the UC Berkeley Recreational Sports Facility, said Berkeley police spokesperson Sgt. Mary Kusmiss. 

Crowder was arrested on Feb. 13 on a $50,000 warrant from campus police stemming from a threat made during an argument with a fellow player. 

“During that exchange, he took out a cell phone and called someone and said, ‘Bring the heat. I need you to take care of someone,’” said Sgt. Kusmiss. 

What caused the threatened player to call police was the advice given him by another player, who told him “‘You’d better take that seriously because the last time Crowder was in a beef with someone, that person ended up dead,’” said Sgt. Kusmiss. 

The campus detective who handled the threat case called Berkeley homicide, where Crowder’s name was prominently featured on a white board on the wall listing victims and suspects in unsolved homicides. 

“Once Crowder was arrested, Berkeley detectives suspected that because making a death threat is a felony, he might potentially speak out about the Drummond case,” said Sgt. Kusmiss. 

Interrogated by Berkeley homicide detectives, Crowder rolled over on Beaudreaux, identifying him as the shooter, apparently believing he wouldn’t be held equally culpable for his role in directing the hit, said the sergeant. 

But under California law, both the shot-caller and the shooter are presumed to be equally guilty, and after Beaudreaux was arrested two days later in San Pablo, the Alameda County District Attorney’s office reviewed the case and both men were charged with one count each of murder on the Tuesday. 

According to the story told by Crowder and witnesses, the fatal shooting happened after another argument, which began outside Larry Blake’s at 2367 Telegraph Ave. near closing time in the early morning of Sept. 4, 2006. 

The argument continued as the three walked east, reaching its climax in the 2500 block of Durant Avenue when Beaudreaux allegedly shot and fatally wounded Drummond, a student from Oakland. Friends of the injured man carried him to the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority house at 2311 Prospect St., where he died at about 2:30 a.m. 

Sgt. Kusmiss said Crowder had been quickly identified as a suspect, and detectives had interviewed him soon afterwards but had not been able to develop enough evidence to prosecute.