Homeless Man Alleges Mistreatment After He Warned Oakland Police About Sniper

OAKLAND, CA - A disabled homeless man alleged Thursday that Oakland police treated him like a suspect instead of a victim when a sniper who was killed in a confrontation with police last Friday fired multiple shots at him three days before last Friday's incident.

Speaking at a news conference at the office of Oakland attorney John Burris, who is representing him and is considering filing a claim or lawsuit on his behalf, 30-year-old Patrick Reddic said Jesse Enjaian fired multiple shots at him on Feb. 14, grazing the back of his head and breaking the windows of his car.

Reddic said he'd been sleeping in his 2001 Toyota Camry while it was parked in the 9500 block of Las Vegas Avenue, where he said he'd regularly parked his car and was known in the neighborhood.

Reddic said that when officers responded to the shooting, "I was treated like a criminal" and officers took him to police headquarters in downtown Oakland, where they handcuffed him while they interviewed him, leaving him with two bruises.

Reddic said officers later drove him back to the 9500 block of Las Vegas Avenue but told him that he had to leave the area or else he would be arrested.

He said he had to drive away with flat tires and shattered windows to another location.

Burris said, "This was terrible, terrible police conduct."

Burris said Enjaian's confrontation with Reddic on Feb. 14 was Enjain's second confrontation with neighbors in five days because Enjaian also fired shots in the same block on Feb. 10, damaging another resident's car.

Burris said Enjaian, a 32-year-old graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of Michigan Law School who worked in computer software, should have been arrested before he used a rifle last Friday morning to fire multiple shots at residents, parked cars and television news helicopters in the 9500 block of Las Vegas Avenue.

According to police, Enjaian also fired shots at officers who responded to the Friday incident and one officer fired a shot that struck Enjaian and killed him.

No residents or police officers were injured in the incident last Friday but Reddic said the whole thing could have been avoided.

He said, "I tried to prevent this massacre from happening."

Reddic said he thinks police didn't treat him well because he's black and he's homeless.

Burris said he's upset that police allowed Enjaian to continue to live in the neighborhood even though he was an active shooter.

Referring to Enjaian, Burris said, "It's clear he may have been partially impaired."

Burris said he's particularly troubled by the multiple shots that Enjaian fired last Friday because the shooting area is adjacent to Bishop O'Dowd High School, which two of his grandchildren attend.

Reddic said he knew Enjaian before the Feb. 14 incident but he said, "I never had a problem with him before."

Reddic said he fled to a neighbor's house after Enjaian shot at him on Feb. 14 but then ran into Enjaian again and Enjaian told him, "I'm the person who shot at you" and then yelled a racial slur at him and told him to get away from his house.

A spokesperson for the Oakland Police said in an email that the department is conducting an internal affairs investigation into the Feb. 10 and Feb. 14 incidents in the 9500 block of Las Vegas Avenue.

The spokesperson also said the officer who shot Enjaian last Friday will be investigated by the department's homicide and internal affairs sections and there are also independent and concurrent investigations by the Alameda County District Attorney's Office.

Burris said Reddic was "traumatized" by what happened to him on Feb. 14 and "was subjected to humiliation and emotional distress" and he's investigating what legal liabilities the Oakland Police Department could face.

Burris said Reddic, who uses a cane, became disabled after he was shot multiple times when he was a victim of a robbery in 2013.

- Bay City News / Image courtesy Bay City News