OAKLAND, Calif. – Two convicted robbers have been charged with going to a Starbucks in Oakland, Calif., on New Year’s Eve and swiping a laptop computer from a man who was mowed down and killed trying to get it back.
Police said the theft happened shortly before noon and led to the hit-and-run death of Shuo Zeng, a 34-year-old software engineer, according to reports.
Zeng was struck and killed when he ran out of the Starbucks after his stolen computer and tried to stop the thieves from leaving in a BMW SUV, Fox 2 San Francisco reported Friday.
Javon Lee, 21, and Byron Reed, 22, both of San Francisco, were arrested by Oakland police on Wednesday.
Reed was charged with murder. He was accused of driving the getaway car that hit Zeng.
Lee was charged with manslaughter. Both suspects were charged with the robbery of Zeng’s laptop.
A third suspect was being sought, Fox 2 reported.
Byron Reed and Javon Lee were charged Friday in connection to a laptop theft that left K-State graduate Shuo Zeng dead after he chased after the suspects. https://t.co/YFG1UgdKW5
— FOX4 News Kansas City (@fox4kc) January 4, 2020
Reed was on parole after serving a sentence for robbery, the East Bay Times reported. Moreover, his partner in crime, Lee, has been convicted of robbery, according to the same report.
At an arraignment Friday, Reed was jailed without bail and Lee was jailed on bail set at $250,000.
Afterward, Shaquila Reed told reporters she was Reed’s sister and that he was innocent.
“He (doesn’t) deserve this. My brother was not there,” she said.
Zeng was from China, but came to the United States to go to graduate school at Kansas State University. After graduating, he then moved to the Bay Area in 2015 to work for IBM. His death occurred on the day he was celebrating his 34th birthday, according to Fox4KC.
Michelle Geering, the physics department head at Kansas State University, remembered Zeng as a great student.
“As a student at Kansas State University, Shuo was well known and very well-liked by everyone in the department; the news of his death is shocking,” Geering said. “The world has lost a bright, friendly and wonderful person.”
