A 14-year-old Oakland boy suspected of fatally shooting his older sister, possibly during a fight over bleached laundry, is being charged as a juvenile, prosecutors said.

Mario Toliver Jr. was charged Thursday, one day after he turned himself in to police in connection with the shooting death of his 17-year-old sister, Justice Toliver.

Citing privacy laws for juvenile defendants, the Alameda County district attorney’s office would not disclose the exact charge until Mario is arraigned in court Monday, but members of the boy’s legal team told local media that they suspected it was either manslaughter or murder.

Mario had been wanted for nearly a week before arriving at an Oakland police station Wednesday flanked by an attorney and family members who publicly appealed for him to come out of hiding.


The shooting occurred about 12:15 p.m. on Jan. 23 in the family’s fifth-floor apartment in the 800 block of Franklin Street in Oakland’s Chinatown district, officials said. Justice died at the scene, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Family members told local media that the shooting occurred during a fight over the girl bleaching Mario’s laundry. His attorneys confirmed that a fight occurred but denied it was over laundry.

The shooting left the Justice’s 3-year-old daughter without a mother. Mario is also a young parent of an infant.

One of Mario’s attorneys, Adante Pointer, told the Bay Area News Group that his client did not make any comments under questioning Wednesday evening.


“There’ll be an opportunity to tell his side of the story, and we look forward to that day,” he said. “Right now, it’s more important to be focused from our perspective in making sure the integrity of the process is maintained.”

jason.wells@latimes.com

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