OAKLAND — Prosecutors in Alameda County have declined to charge the man police identified as the surviving gunman in a March 7 mass shooting that killed two and injured five, this news organization has learned.
The decision by the Alameda County District Attorney’s office came after a review of footage from the EZ Lounge, which depicts 25-year-old Markise Martin being shot dead during a confrontation with a 38-year-old man, authorities said. Prosecutors determined they’re currently unable to prove the 38-year-old man didn’t act in self-defense when he shot and killed Martin, who allegedly pulled a gun during the confrontation.
Martin and 33-year-old Latetia “Teesh” Bobo were killed in the shooting and five others were injured. But the Oakland police investigation came to another striking conclusion: that Bobo was killed by a bullet fired from Martin’s gun, which he shot as he fell to the ground, injured from gunfire, authorities said. Bobo was a middle school teacher and artist, whose death caused shockwaves throughout the West Contra Costa community where she worked.
The 38-year-old suspected gunman’s legal problems may just be beginning, though. Federal prosecutors in the Bay Area have charged him with violating his supervised release in a 2022 gun conviction, alleging that 10 days after the mass shooting, he punched his girlfriend and choked her in San Joaquin County, screaming, “f— you … I’m going to kill you,” according to court records. He was arrested two days later on suspicion of attempted murder and charged in federal court with two violations, including allegedly possessing ammunition that was reportedly found in his home.
He was also convicted in 2013 of plotting with two other men to rob a purported cartel cocaine house in Oakland for $1 million. In that case, “a successful, widely-respected Oakland drug dealer” who was secretly working as a federal informant introduced the 38-year-old man to an undercover ATF agent, who introduced the robbery plot, according to court records. During the undercover operation, the man allegedly told the agent he had an AK-47 to use and confessed to killing a person to avenge his cousin being shot, according to court records.
The decision not to charge him could be revisited if new evidence comes to light, authorities said. But given that the shooting was captured on video and the footage was repeatedly reviewed by investigators, that seems a remote possibility. Prosecutors determined they couldn’t disprove that Martin initiated the violence by pulling a gun first, authorities said.
The shooting occurred around 3 a.m. inside the lounge, which wasn’t supposed to be open that late. Since the shooting, it has remained closed and its public phone number goes to a woman who told this news organization she has no knowledge of the business or why her number is associated with it.
Prosecutors have filed other charges against people during the course of the investigation, for unrelated alleged crimes. A 33-year-old Stockton man was charged with gun possession after police identified him as a person with a weapon at Martin’s funeral in Hayward, court records show. One of the surviving victims was also charged with violating probation in a sexual assault case, after police identified him as a person in a rap music video who produced a pistol, though the man claimed the “weapon” was actually a toy prop.