Arrests in sleepover killing of girl in Oakland Police say attack meant to avenge earlier slaying

Alaysha Carradine Alaysha Carradine Photo: Family Photo, Courtesy Of Carradine Family Photo: Family Photo, Courtesy Of Carradine Family Image 1 of / 15 Caption Close Arrests in sleepover killing of girl in Oakland 1 / 15 Back to Gallery

After the fatal shooting of 8-year-old Alaysha Carradine at an Oakland sleepover enraged and confounded the city for weeks, authorities on Tuesday announced two arrests and laid out a brutal account of what the spirited girl nicknamed "Ladybug" faced when she answered her playmate's doorbell.

A young man with gang ties and a prison record had come with a gun, police said, bent on hurting a man he believed was responsible for a slaying in Berkeley just four hours earlier. The visitor sought to kill not only his rival, police said, but the rival's family - which had been hosting Alaysha.

And as the apartment door opened at 11:15 p.m. on July 17, bullets began to spray.

Evidence at the scene suggested a wild fusillade, with some rounds passing through the wood door and metal security gate. Within seconds, Alaysha fell in a barrage that also injured her 7-year-old playmate, the playmate's 4-year-old brother and the siblings' 63-year-old grandmother.

The chief target either wasn't hit or wasn't there at all. Authorities wouldn't discuss that detail on Tuesday, nor would they identify the target, referring to him only as "John Doe."

Authorities named Alaysha's killer as Darnell Williams, 22, of Oakland, while announcing murder charges against him and an alleged collaborator in the attack, a man who investigators suggested was casing the apartment in the relatively calm Dimond neighborhood two hours before the slaying.

Police said Williams served prison time for a weapons violation before embarking on a vicious crime spree tied to a string of tit-for-tat homicides. They said that he also shot and killed a friend in Berkeley last month during a robbery try, and that he and some associates conspired to kill others - plans that police were able to thwart.

'Despicable' crimes

The arrests bring to a close a wide-ranging probe that included Oakland and Berkeley police and state agents, and may provide some clarity to a case that rattled people around the city because of the innocence - and age -of the victim.

"It's with a heavy heart that we're here this morning," interim Oakland Assistant Police Chief Paul Figueroa said at a news conference Tuesday morning at police headquarters. "In the career of every law enforcement official, there's some times where crimes happen and occur that are so despicable that you never forget them, and you dedicate the resources to bringing some justice to a very tragic situation."

Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley blasted the "complete disregard for human life by some of these individuals who are involved in gang activity." She said Williams opened fire "without any consideration of who was standing at the door."

On Tuesday afternoon, Alaysha's mother, 25-year-old Chiquita Carradine, wore a T-shirt that read "Ladybug" and included her daughter's photo as she attended Williams' first court hearing in Oakland. He spoke only to confirm that he had plans to hire an attorney.

"I'm pissed, but I'm excited," Carradine said. "I've been waiting for this day since I got the phone call that she was dead, and I'm ready to fight. I want complete justice for my daughter."

Carradine blamed "John Doe" for Alaysha's death, calling him a "coward" and saying he didn't offer police any help in solving the case.

Hunting 'John Doe'

The attack was retaliation for the slaying of Jermaine Davis, 26, on the 1800 block of Derby Street in Berkeley shortly before 7 p.m. that same evening, authorities said.

Davis was apparently a high-profile target. He was killed just five days after four gang members who killed his brother and two other men in Oakland in 2009 were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. According to police, Davis had been the intended target in the 2009 attack.

Shortly after Davis was killed, police said, his cousin - 27-year-old Joseph Carroll of Oakland - went looking for "John Doe," the man whose family was hosting Alaysha. Carroll allegedly went to the home of the man's mother in Antioch, waited for him to leave and then confronted him at a gas station. What exactly happened there is unclear.

Carroll then helped plan the Dimond neighborhood attack, Oakland police Officer Robert Rosin wrote in a court affidavit. Two hours before Alaysha was killed, Carroll was outside the Oakland apartment, where he spoke to Williams by phone, Rosin wrote.

Carroll was arrested over the weekend in Harris County, Texas, and has been charged with murder and attempted murder in the shooting that killed Alaysha.

Williams, who was arrested Sept. 8 in connection with the death of his friend in Berkeley, was accused of murder and attempted murder as well, along with other charges. He faces two special circumstances - committing multiple murders and lying in wait - that make him eligible for the death penalty or life in prison without parole if convicted.

Carroll, who has a previous conviction for being a felon in possession of a gun, and three other suspects were also charged with conspiring to murder two men who Carroll believed had disrespected him and his brother.

Violence continued

Authorities said Alaysha's killing didn't end the violence. It continued on Sept. 8, when Williams shot and killed a man with whom he was "supposedly friends," 22-year-old Anthony Medearis, O'Malley said. The slaying happened on the 1400 block of Eighth Street in Berkeley, in an alleged robbery attempt during a dice game.

Williams' 7-year-old nephew was grazed in the face by bullet fragments. Williams was arrested that day after police found him hiding in a shed, and he and a woman, 28-year-old Laquana Nuno of Oakland, were later charged with murder in the death of Medearis.

At Tuesday's news conference, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan lauded the police work that she said had brought the "people responsible to justice."

Even in a city struggling with one of the nation's highest violent crime rates, Alaysha's death was staggering, and it galvanized city and community leaders to pledge to do more to stem the bloodshed. Quan and interim Police Chief Sean Whent attended Alaysha's funeral and visited her injured playmates at the hospital.

"Every family that's been touched by violence in the city," Quan said, "is owed the same effort."