A man who was shot and killed by police in a confrontation near Lake Merritt last week had previously been arrested on suspicion of stalking a woman and decapitating a goose, according to court documents.
Officers identified the man as 30-year-old Yonas Alehegne. He was arrested earlier this year on suspicion of cruelly wounding an animal and resisting arrest on July 14, 2015, according to court documents.
In a police report, Officer Terryl Smith wrote that he responded to the 600 block of Bellevue Avenue at Lake Merritt to investigate a report of someone mutilating a goose.
Smith found a man, later identified as Alehegne, kneeling over the decapitated body of a goose.
He ordered Alehegne to the ground and Alehegne reportedly told the officer, “I am hungry and tired and want to eat the goose,” according to the police report.
Alehegne was transported for mental health treatment before being booked in Santa Rita Jail, according to the report.
Roughly a year prior, on Aug. 16, 2014, Alehegne had been arrested for stalking a woman.
On Thursday, just before 7 a.m., Oakland police Officer Jennifer Farrell was continuing an investigation into an assault in the 200 block of MacArthur Boulevard that had been reported earlier in the evening.
Farrell had completed an interview of the assault victim and was driving away when she spotted Alehegne, who police said matched the description of the suspect in the assault.
Farrell got of the vehicle and before she could speak to Alehegne, police said Alehegne attacked her, swinging a chain and striking her in the head and face.
He continued to advance towards Farrell but police said Farrell shot and struck Alehegne, killing him.
Farrell, an 18-year veteran of the department, was transported to the hospital for injuries suffered to her head and face. Police said she has since been released from the hospital.
Per department protocol, the shooting is being investigated by its homicide and internal affairs division as well as by the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office.
The incident marks the sixth officer-involved shooting in Oakland this year and the fourth that was fatal, police said.
Erin Baldassari, Bay City News
