A Berkeley police officer shot and killed a woman outside her South Berkeley apartment Saturday night when she allegedly threatened two relatives with a kitchen knife, police said.
The unidentified officer, a five-year veteran of the force, shot 51-year-old Anita Gay at about 8 p.m. outside her home at 1727 Ward St., said Berkeley police Sgt. Mary Kusmiss.
The officer told investigators Gay was near her front door holding a "large, kitchen-style knife" when two of her family members came out, Kusmiss said. Gay turned towards them and raised the knife, and the officer fired his weapon at least twice, Kusmiss said.
"From our preliminary investigation, the shooting appears to be justified," Kusmiss said.
Neighbors said Gay had been in an argument with family members and had been locked out of the apartment, where she lived with her two daughters and their children. Gay wanted to get into the home to get her wallet and some possessions for the night, neighbors said.
The officer who shot Gay had come to the home about an hour earlier after reports of someone smashing windows, Kusmiss said. Gay was questioned by police and released shortly thereafter.
Neighbor Kim Johnson said she allowed Gay to use her phone to call police during the dispute with her daughters. Johnson said she then walked Gay back to her apartment.
Johnson said she had seen Gay carrying a knife in the waistband of her pajamas. But during her standoff with the officer, Gay had been insisting she did not have the knife, Johnson said.
"He was yelling, ’drop the knife,’ and she kept saying, ’I don’t have nothing,’" Johnson said. "I went around the corner and heard three shots and came back and couldn’t believe he had shot her."
The officer then walked to the end of the block and vomited, said Reney Wilkins, a neighbor who watched from a window.
Witnesses, who said they did not see the shooting, said they had seen Gay standing with her hands against a wall near the bottom of the steps to the apartment while the officer pointed a gun at her from the sidewalk.
Several neighbors were outraged the officer shot Gay, saying she had gotten rid of the knife and was having trouble keeping her balance.
"It was martial law out here," Wilkins said Sunday afternoon. "Thank goodness the children were inside."
A bullet splintered the frame of Gay’s front door, where a small spatter of blood was visible Sunday.
Neighbors said Gay, whom they referred to as "Mama," generally kept to herself. But she had shared her home-cooked gumbo with people in the building and had occasionally looked after some of her neighbors’ children.
A coroner’s toxicology report-which could take up to three weeks to develop-will determine whether Gay was under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
The officer has been placed on administrative leave, according to protocol. Berkeley police homicide detectives and the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office are investigating the shooting.
The last fatal officer-involved shooting in Berkeley happened in July 2003, when officers killed a suspect in an armed robbery of the Wells Fargo bank on College Avenue, Kusmiss said. |
