After Oakland killing, police ambush and vigilante spree came a message of forgiveness

OAKLAND Jamel Tousant Sr has addressed his son s suspected killers twice once on the streets with a gun then in court a decade later with a message of forgiveness There was a lot of turmoil along the way all stemming from a simple chain robbery during a Berkeley gang feud The aftermath of the April killing of -year-old Jamel Tousant Jr led to an undercover Oakland police car being ambushed and shot up Tousant Sr going on a vigilante shooting spree to avenge his son s death while simultaneously tipping off the cops and the arrest of a suspect Hugles Blackwell five years after the homicide Related Articles Alameda County DA dismisses matter against Radius Recycling in massive fire Kidnapping assault charges filed against trio in abduction of -year-old Oakland girl Who is Trump s new top Bay Area federal prosecutor L A Times dispute Guns N Roses Chinese spy development and more Man shot and killed on th Avenue in Oakland on Saturday Five years after George Floyd protests police change slows amid Bay Area political shifts The incident ended in February after Blackwell pleaded no contest to manslaughter in a plea deal for a dropped murder charge and a -year prison term At Blackwell s sentencing hearing Tousant Sr called in from a state prison in Vacaville where he s serving a sentence for shooting at men he blamed for killing his son Tousant Sr recounted an epiphany that moved him to Christianity then explained Blackwell he forgave him In contemporary times is the day for me to stand up as a man and I m here to forgive Mr Blackwell God communicated me to do something positive and save specific kids Tousant Sr commented later adding that the whole pain in my heart was just published when he realized this I miss my child every day I hurt every day but I m tired of being negative I just want something positive out of this I want to smile again In his closing remarks Tousant Sr noted that the same prosecutor who was handling Blackwell s situation had also sent me to prison a decade ago in the aftermath of his son s death Tousant Jr s mother spoke next but her perspective was starkly different He murdered my son in cold blood and the way that it was done established the kind of person he is she disclosed of Blackwell He is a cold-hearted killer with no remorse no soul He is soulless Tousant Jr an Antioch resident was shot and killed while driving down the block of th Avenue at International Boulevard in East Oakland Police say a car pulled up alongside him and someone opened fire from it killing him The shooting was attributed to a feud between two North Oakland Berkeley gangs known as Waterfront and the Five Finga Mafia which had been exacerbated by a gang member being robbed of a jeweled chain days earlier Oakland police hit the streets hoping to stop the gang feud but ended up being the next casualties of violence An undercover police squad was surveilling an area in West Oakland when they were accosted and shot at by a group of people who apparently suspected the automobile belonged to rivals not cops One of the individuals was Robert Blackwell III Hugles Blackwell s brother and he was sentenced to years in state prison for the shooting court records show Meanwhile Tousant Sr was plotting his revenge He shot a then- -year-old man in the leg in August while aiming at a group of men he blamed for his son s death functionaries reported Police discovered multiple guns and ballistic vests in his possession during a search two weeks later Once in police custody Tousant Sr took a different tack if he couldn t kill his son s killers he could at least help imprison them He described an Oakland homicide investigator that Hugles Blackwell had been at a dice encounter where his son was shortly before the homicide and presumed that Blackwell had helped trail and kill him afterward police testified at Blackwell s preliminary hearing Police considered the tip and acted on it but nothing came of the scrutiny for years The major break came when an eyewitness to the shooting identified Blackwell but with that came another quirk in the circumstance Once Blackwell was charged prosecutors took extraordinary strategies to protect the man s identity obtaining a court order to keep it from Blackwell and allowing cops to testify about the man using the pseudonym John Doe Police investigators and prosecutors routinely name informants in court filings and testimony they named Tousant Sr as a tipster in the preliminary hearing for instance and it s unclear why Doe was afforded this special rehabilitation But Doe s involvement was a big reason why Blackwell accepted a plea deal his lawyer mentioned in a report Mr Blackwell decided to resolve this occurrence to ensure that he gets back to his family as soon as feasible the defense lawyer Jeff Wozniak revealed This has been a long road and Mr Blackwell did not want to menace a life sentence based on the testimony of one witness Blackwell will receive credit for the five years he spent in jail while the occurrence was pending As for Robert Blackwell III he was granted an early release from prison in his -year sentence for shooting up a cop car But in a final bitter twist police identified him as the man who shot up a police van in West Oakland earlier this year The officer inside was not struck by the bullets that hit his car and now Blackwell is facing attempted murder charges and a promising life sentence Prosecutors contend that Robert Blackwell III was out to kill a cop that night but didn t care which one he shot The shooting occurred occurred a little after midnight on Feb barely three days after Hugles Blackwell was formally sentenced to prison and listened to Tousant Sr s message of forgiveness