| Mortgage Broker Gunned Down
Oakland ‘sideshows’ leave Eric Ramon Baeza dead February 14, 2005 By PATRICK CROWLEY |
| Oakland mortgage broker Eric Ramon Baeza should be preparing to celebrate the birth of his first child. Instead, family and friends are mourning his murder.Baeza, 23, was found shot dead in the early morning hours of Feb. 6 in a neighborhood close to where he grew up. The area is locally infamous for sideshows, what local police and officials say are illegal car rallies known for reckless driving as well as reckless people.
“Stolen vehicles, firearms and illegal drugs are routinely recovered during sideshow activity and vehicle pursuits of serious offenders do occur,” Oakland Police Chief Richard L. Word told Oakland City Council in a report issued last year on sideshow activity. “Since 1998 seven traffic fatalities have been linked to the illegal exhibitions of speed and racing that occur during the sideshow,” Word told council in the written report. Witnesses said a sideshow was taking place the night Baeza was shot, Oakland police have confirmed. Baeza was driving in a van filled with friends that was apparently hit by another van traveling in the area. According to police, Baeza was shot multiple times by the driver of the van that hit his vehicle. He was shot around 1 a.m. and was pronounced dead at an area hospital at 2:39 a.m., police said. Baeza’s wife is due to have the couple’s first child in just a matter of days. He grew up just a couple of miles from where he died, David Briseno, 23, who grew up with Baeza, reportedly told the San Francisco Chronicle. Briseno said Baeza had overcome the problems and difficulties of growing up in a tough neighborhood and “really got his life together.” “It’s just the saddest thing,” Briseno said. Oakland is getting more serious about cracking down on the sideshows and the problems associated with the gatherings. Police have offered a $10,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest in Baeza’s death. And Oakland City Council is considering raising the fee for recovering an impounded automobile from $175 to $250 to pay for more weekend police patrols in areas known for sideshows, according to a proposal posted on the city’s official Web site. “The intent…is to address reckless, unlicensed and suspended drivers,” Deputy Police Chief Peter W. Dunbar told council in the report. “Revenues will also offset some of the overtime costs associated with ‘sideshow’ enforcement,” Dunbar said. The police are recommending that council adopt the higher impoundment fee and use the money to increase traffic patrols in problem areas. Word said in his 2004 report that problems associated with sideshows include “noise, litter and the defacement of city streets and off-street parking areas from black tire skid marks.” “Neighborhood residents complain of disorderly conduct, vandalism, public intoxication and public urination,” Word said. “A staggering 70% of the cars towed (after being taken into police custody)…were taken from unlicensed drivers. Fifty-four of the 206 total arrests made were for driving under the influence of alcohol and/or other drugs.” |
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Patrick Crowley is a political reporter and columnist and former business writer for The Cincinnati Enquirer. Email Patrick at: pcrowley@enquirer.com |
