ALAMEDA — A man wearing face covering and who threatened protestors while brandishing what appeared to be a gun on Martin Luther King Jr. Day has been identified and faces criminal charges, police said.
Jonathan Gee, a 33-year-old Alameda resident, admitted he was the individual who confronted the protestors, who were traveling in a car caravan Jan. 18 as it made its way from Oakland to the Alameda home of Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley, according to investigators.
The group was calling on O’Malley to reverse her decision about not charging former BART police Officer Anthony Pirone in connection with the shooting death of Oscar Grant during the early morning of New Year’s Day 2009 at Oakland’s Fruitvale BART station.
Gee told investigators the item he was carrying was a replica “Airsoft” long gun, but that he has since gotten rid of it, police said.
Investigators said they are still trying to confirm his account, but noted no firearm or replica weapon was discovered during a search of his residence. Clothing that links him to the confrontation was found, however, police said.
Gee faces charges of disturbing the peace in a manner likely to provoke a violent reaction, as well as the unlawful alteration of an imitation firearm.
Police announced Friday that Gee had been identified and said that prosecutors had filed a criminal complaint against him.
Witnesses told police that a man with a face covering — who police say was Gee — appeared as the caravan passed through Alameda’s Bayport neighborhood, yelling at them to get “out of here,” and that he was holding what looked to be a firearm. It happened about 2:45 p.m.
“Here it was again, a peaceful demonstration that took place, and yet we were confronted in a way that was violent and dangerous,” Cephus X Johnson, Oscar Grant’s uncle and who took part in the protest, said during a press conference afterward.
The Anti Police-Terror Project organized the traveling demonstration, which also called for reallocating funds from police to other resources.
Attorneys representing Grant’s family point to an internal report on his death — produced after then-BART Officer Johannes Mehserle fatally shot him and claimed that he mixed up his gun and Taser — that surfaced in 2019 because of recent police-transparency laws. The report determined that “the actions of Officer Pirone started a cascade of events that ultimately led to the shooting of Grant.”
Alameda police ask anyone with information on the confrontation during the caravan to call 510-337-8340.
Staff writer Annie Sciacca contributed to this report.
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