OAKLAND, Calif. Three defendants identified as gang members were charged with murder in the fatal shooting of retired police officer Kevin Nishita. He was gunned down Nov. 24 while protecting a news crew reporting on smash-and-grab robberies in the Bay area.
The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office announced last week that Laron Marques Gilbert, Hershel Hale, and Shadihia Mitchell were charged with murder, attempted robbery, and assault with a firearm. Gilbert remains on the run, while Hale and Mitchell are in custody, KTVU reported.
“Obviously this has been a very difficult time. He is loved by those who knew him. Nothing brings back your loved one, but people can feel some sense of justice with these arrests,” Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong told reporters Thursday, according to KRON.
“Today we need the public’s help locating the third suspect, Laron Gilbert, who is not [in] custody. He is responsible for this homicide as well. We consider this person to be dangerous,” Armstrong said.
An Oakland police detective said Gilbert, Hale, and Mitchell are members of a San Francisco street gang, KRON reported. Armstrong did not specify the gang name, noting, “we try to not bring any attention to these gangs.”
Each man has previous felony criminal records, including violent charges such as shootings, assault of a peace officer or firefighter, and illegal firearms possession, KTVU reported.
Mitchell was identified as the triggerman in Nishita’s murder. The retired officer was working security for KRON-TV at the time of his death.
Nishita worked as a police officer with multiple agencies, including police departments in San Jose, Hayward, Colma and for the Oakland Housing Authority. Upon retiring from law enforcement, he began working in private security for local news crews, who have been targeted in a string of recent armed robberies, according to KTVU.
On the day he was murdered, Nishita was providing security for a news crew covering a smash-and-grab theft in Oakland. He was shot in the abdomen as the crew of gang members targeted the news team’s camera equipment during a robbery, Law Officer reported.
“Kevin went above and beyond as a security guard for the Bay Area news crews. He developed true friendships with the teams of the newscasters of each network,” Nishita’s widow, Gina Nishita, said earlier this month as she accepted her husband’s Radio Television Digital News Foundation’s citation of courage award, Fox reported.
“For example, we went on vacation, he bought multiple umbrellas and I asked him, ‘why did you buy so many?’ And his response was, so that when they film outside, and it was raining, that he could protect the news crews from the elements. Another time, Kevin drove two hours outside of his way to make sure that the news reporter would reach her home safely that night,” she said.
Nishita is survived by his wife, two children, and three grandchildren.
