Alameda County prosecutors charged a fourth man with murder in the fatal shooting of Oakland police officer Tuan Le, just as he appeared willing to plead guilty to lesser burglary charges tied to late-December killing.
The decision to add Sebron Russell, 30, to the list of men facing murder charges in Le’s death marked an about-face for the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, which had previously only charged the Richmond man with three counts of second-degree commercial burglary, along with numerous sentencing enhancements.
In a court filing, Russell’s attorney, David Knutsen, blasted the district attorney’s office for trying to “circumvent” the normal process for filing new charges. He added that Russell had signed paperwork on Feb. 15 pleading guilty to the lesser charges, a day before learning he would be charged with murder.
“The District Attorney is attempting to thwart Mr. Russell’s rights with this proposed amended complaint,” Knutsen wrote.
In a separate court filing seeking to justify the move, prosecutor Nick Homer stressed that “a defendant may not simply plead guilty prior to an amendment being offered to avoid additional criminal charges.” The murder charge was filed by Elgin Lowe, a prosecutor who is assigned to lead the case amid a staff shakeup earlier this month involving several high-level attorneys at the DA’s office.
Russell was arrested in San Francisco just days after Le’s death on Dec. 29, which happened as the undercover officer responded to a pre-dawn burglary call at a marijuana grow house along the city’s waterfront. Le was shot in the head just minutes after arriving with his partner in an unmarked pickup truck, while working as plainclothes officers.
The burglary call was the third break-in that morning at the business on the 400 block of Embarcadero, near 5th Avenue.
Prosecutors previously charged three other men — Mark Demetrious Sanders, Allen Starr Brown and Marquise Cooper — with murder in the killing. Authorities suspect Sanders fired the fatal bullet, while Brown drove the getaway car. Cooper’s exact alleged role remains unclear.
Until recently, Russell had been the only man charged in connection with Le’s death to be granted bail. He was released from the Santa Rita Jail in mid-January on $200,000, and made at least one court appearance while out of custody.
Court records show a judge signed off on his arrest Feb. 12 in connection with the new murder charge. He was taken into custody four days later by Oakland police, according to a filing by the district attorney’s office justifying the move.