OAKLAND — The friend of a victim in a fatal Christmas Eve homicide near Lake Merritt described the shooter as an aggressive marijuana dealer who wouldn’t take no for an answer, according to police investigators.
Ricky Bustos, 38, was shot and killed a little after 8 p.m. Christmas Eve, on the 1400 block of Lakeshore Avenue, according to police; three months later, 21-year-old Emmanuel Gardner-Craft was arrested and charged with murder and being a felon in possession of a firearm, court records show. Gardner-Craft has not yet entered a plea and isn’t scheduled to do so until a May 12 arraignment in Dublin, according to court records.
The probable cause statement police filed in court to justify the charges says that Bustos’ friend said he was “certain” that Gardner-Craft was the man who shot and killed Bustos, after police showed him a picture. But then he hedged and said he wasn’t sure the shooter had a mustache, as Gardner-Craft did in the picture.
Bustos’ friend originally told police that he and Bustos went to the lake to smoke marijuana and drink alcohol with two female friends, and that Bustos was fatally shot while publicly urinating. Two days later, he changed his story, explaining that he talked it over with his wife and decided he needed to tell the truth.
This time, Bustos’ friend claimed that he and Bustos were approached by a man in a silver Buick Riviera at a liquor store near the Goodwill on International Boulevard, who offered to sell them marijuana. When they said no, the man didn’t seem to take it well, Bustos’ friend claimed.
The two friends then drove about 10 minutes away to the lake, at which point they were approached by the Buick again, Bustos’ friend told police. Again, they told him they didn’t want to purchase marijuana and he responded by saying, “What, what,” in an aggressive tone. A few moments later, Bustos and the Buick’s driver got into a heated argument and shots were fired from the Buick, according to multiple eyewitnesses.
In a search of Bustos’ friends car, which was parked near the shooting, police said the found “a large amount” of marijuana and a revolver on the ground next to the car.
Police identified Gardner-Craft as a suspect by tying him to a silver Buick and presenting Bustos’ friend with a photo lineup that included Gardner-Craft, according to police.
Gardner-Craft remains in Santa Rita Jail on a no-bail hold, records show.
Source: www.mercurynews.com