{"id":192419,"date":"2026-02-25T03:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T03:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/192419\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T03:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T03:36:09","slug":"man-takes-plea-deal-sentenced-in-2024-juneteenth-mass-shootout-near-lake-merritt-the-mercury-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/192419\/","title":{"rendered":"Man takes plea deal, sentenced in 2024 Juneteenth mass shootout near Lake Merritt \u2013 The Mercury News"},"content":{"rendered":"

A key figure in the shootout that left more than a dozen people injured<\/a> on Juneteenth in 2024 is expected to be released on parole this week, after his attorney argued that the man fired in self-defense during one of Oakland\u2019s largest mass shootings.<\/p>\n

JaJuan Kelly, 25, was sentenced Thursday after accepting a plea deal that saw Alameda County prosecutors toss multiple charges of assault with a firearm<\/a> in favor of a single count of possession of a firearm by a felon.<\/p>\n

The deal \u2014 which was approved by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Roz Silvaggio \u2014 called for Kelly to receive a three-year jail sentence, though that length\u00a0was essentially halved due to his time already spent at the Santa Rita Jail and his good behavior while he was there.<\/p>\n

The ruling caps the highest-profile criminal case from the shootout, which left more than a dozen people injured<\/a> and marred what had been a peaceful celebration earlier that day for thousands of Oaklanders gathered around Lake Merritt to mark the federal Juneteenth holiday.<\/p>\n

As many as 5,000 people attended the Juneteenth festivities at the lake that day, and about 2,000 people remained in the area after the sun set, when the bullets started flying, court records showed. Just before the shooting, fights broke out among numerous people watching a sideshow involving some 20 vehicles, including dirt bikes and ATVs, police initially said.<\/p>\n

The gunfire appeared to have originated from two groups of people who began shooting at each other near Grand and Euclid avenues, authorities said, leaving dozens of shell casings on the ground and sending hundreds of people\u00a0scrambling for safety. Some of the wounded were transported to hospitals from the scene while others showed up on their own at nearby hospitals.<\/p>\n

Kelly was critically injured after being shot in the back of his left thigh, as well as one of his shins, court records show. Another man who was with him during the shootout, Roosevelt Curry, was hospitalized with a gunshot wound to his abdomen. He also was later charged in connection with the shooting; his case remains ongoing, court records show.<\/p>\n

Video footage showed Curry shooting with his left hand, racking the gun to fix a malfunction, taking out and reinserting a magazine, then checking his abdomen, apparently realizing he has been shot. Then he and another man, Damijia McGee, ran away, according to police.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Kelly\u2019s attorney said his client had been attacked \u201cfor no reason\u201d while taking part in the Juneteenth celebration, and that he \u201cdefended himself and fired back to save his own life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Kelly was injured during the incident and is lucky to be alive,\u201d said the attorney, Ernie Castillo, who added that video of the incident confirmed the \u201clife-threatening situation\u201d that Kelly faced that evening. \u201cThis is a real victory for Mr. Kelly and I\u2019m glad he can finally go home to his family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also arrested was Damijia McGee, 25, who was initially accused of being one of the gunmen who opened fire that day. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Jason Chin ruled at a key evidentiary hearing in October 2024 that McGee\u2019s case could continue to trial, though the judge added that a jury \u201cmay very well find the defense arguments compelling.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGee also agreed to a similar deal with Alameda County prosecutors in late October, when he pleaded no contest to possession of a firearm by a felon. He was immediately paroled, after having already served his two-year prison sentence in the case, thanks in part to his good behavior in jail.<\/p>\n

Oakland police suspected McGee to be one of the shooters after video emerged of him appearing to wear the same clothing as one of the gunmen during the mass shootout at Lake Merritt. McGee was later injured during a subsequent shooting roughly 45 minutes later \u2014 less than a mile away, in the 1000 block of E. 24th Street neighborhood of East Oakland, court records show.<\/p>\n

His attorney, Daniel Shriro, argued in court documents that McGee was merely acting in self-defense, citing video from the scene that showed him appearing to be shot after getting out of a vehicle near his mother\u2019s house and struggling over a gun with another man.<\/p>\n

The violence came just three years after another mass shooting near the end of a city-sponsored Juneteenth event on the Lake Merritt\u2019s south shore, when one person was killed and seven were wounded as gunfire erupted on Lakeshore Avenue.<\/p>\n

Jakob Rodgers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send him an encrypted message via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at jrodgers@bayareanewsgroup.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A key figure in the shootout that left more than a dozen people injured on Juneteenth in 2024…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[389,184,861,7,8,723,138,332,1529,2333,1533,9356,181,23,7535,100,143,145,144,182,385],"class_list":{"0":"post-192419","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-alameda-county","9":"tag-bay-area","10":"tag-bay-area-crime","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-california-news","13":"tag-crime","14":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","15":"tag-east-bay","16":"tag-east-bay-crime","17":"tag-editors-picks","18":"tag-keywee","19":"tag-lake-merritt","20":"tag-latest-headlines","21":"tag-local-news","22":"tag-mass-shootings","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-oakland","25":"tag-oakland-headlines","26":"tag-oakland-news","27":"tag-pm-report","28":"tag-regional"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}