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South Berkeley Homicide City’s 8th of the Year
Berkeley Police are offering a $15,000 reward for information that leads to conviction of the shooter who gunned down a 29-year-old Berkeley man on May 28.
Late that night, officers rushed to the corner of California and Tyler streets. When police arrived, they found the mortally wounded Anthony Beamon lying on the sidewalk, where he had been shot moments before.
Rushed to Highland Hospital, he later died of his injuries, reports Berkeley police spokes-person Officer Andrew Frankel.
Police received calls about shots fired at 11:32 p.m. and rushed to the scene. One neighbor said as many as a dozen shots had been fired.
Sgt. Mary Kusmiss said police had to control a small crowd of neighbors, members of Beamon’s family and others who had gatheered moments after the shooting.
The homicide was the city’s eighth for the year, including the shooting by a Berkeley police officer of a South Berkeley mother who police said had been wielding a knife outside her home and threatening family members.
For all of last year, Berkeley reported a total of five killings. The city has logged three homicides within the last four weeks.
Frankel originally declined to confirm the victim’s identity, which was provided by neighbors and reported in several newspapers.
“Detectives are still interviewing his family members and witnesses,” he said.
Frankel said he knew of no evidence to indicate that Beamon was armed at the time of the shooting, and when asked how many times the 29-year-old father had been shot, he said only “more than once.”
Sgt. Kusmiss said a search of the area revealed that the killer’s bullets had also struck a home at 1536 Tyler as well as a car parked in front of the residence. No one in the home was injured.
The $15,000 reward was announced Tuesday in a statement from Frankel, who reported that investigators are pursuing “several leads” in the case, but haven’t made any arrests.
The officer asked anyone with information about the shooting to call the BPD Homicide Detail at 981-5741or the department’s non-emergency dispatch line at 981-5900.
