By Ali Winston/WEST OAKLAND
Before the long hours of budget wrangling and pleas to save arts program dominated Oakland’s City Council meeting on Tuesday, council members got an earful from residents.
“There is a problem in our neighborhoods, and his name is Jiminez,” said Scott Candell, an attorney who represents the family of Jody “Mack” Woodfox III, 27, who was fatally shot on July 25 by Officer Hector Jiminez of the Oakland Police Department during an attempted traffic stop.
Woodfox was shot twice in the back by Jiminez during a foot chase after he pulled over at East 17th Street and Fruitvale Avenue Jiminez fired when Woodfox reportedly reached for his waistband. Woodfox was unarmed.
“You can’t get a bigger red flag than a guy who was shot in the bag,” said Candell, who criticized OPD’s investigation of the first Jiminez shooting. Candell wants the state attorney general to conduct an investigation into officer-involved shootings instead of the District Attorney, because he believs DA’s cannot objectively prosecute police officers when they work so closely with the department. “The system is set up so the guy is protected.”
Lawyers for the Oakland Police Officers Associaton maintain Woodfox had a criminal record and was being investigated with a group of people linked to West Oakland’s Acorn street gang. However, Jiminez and another officer initiated the stop for suspected drunk driving.
Woodfox filed a federal civil rights suit alleging a San Francisco sheriff’s deputy had assaulted him in 2005, while Woodfox was held in a 2004 attempted murder case in San Francisco. No charges were ever filed against Woodfox.
“I want to have some kind of trust in the police, but right now I have none,” said Robyn Woodfox, Jody Woodfox’s Aunt. “I’m tired. I want something to be done.”
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