Update, 4:15 pm: BPD confirmed that the suspect is Steven Oliver Moore, 48, who lives in Pittsburg, but used to live in Berkeley. He has been the subject of ongoing narcotics investigation, according to Sgt. Mary Kusmiss. Police found a half pound of cocaine on Moore, in his car, and at a nearby house with which he was associated.
Moore was on parole for federal drug and weapons charges at the time of his arrest and is now being detained on new narcotics charges, she said. Moore is in critical but stable condition. The police officer who was hurt was treated and released from the hospital Wednesday night. He has been put on paid administrative leave while the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department and the District Attorney investigate the shooting.
Original story: The man whom Berkeley police shot in Castro Valley Wednesday night after he allegedly backed his car into an officer is a member of a family who once ran a notorious drug house.
Steve Moore is the son of Lenora Moore, who owned a two-bedroom house at 1610 Oregon Street in south Berkeley. For decades, police made numerous drug-related arrests at the house, according to records.
Lenora Moore’s grandson Mark A. Perry was killed nearby in April 1992 in a drug-related shooting. One of Lenora Moore’s sons, Frank Moore Jr., and a grandson, Ralph Perry Jr., were shot by rival drug dealers in October 1999 in the 1500 block of Oregon.
Steve Moore, 48, also has a record of drug-related offenses, according to court documents. He is being treated at Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley for gun-related injuries. Berkeley police have not released any information on the condition of the officer whose leg and hand were squished by a car.
Neither Berkeley police nor the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department has identified Steve Moore as the man who was shot, although someone identifying herself as his girlfriend provided his name to KGO. Someone with intimate knowledge of the family identified the suspect to Berkeleyside.
Berkeley police will hold a press conference about the shooting at 4:15 pm today.
The incident happened at 5:00 pm at the intersection of Grove Way near Center Street in Castro Valley, according to Sgt. J.D. Nelson, a spokesman for the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department. Two Berkeley police officers traveling in an unmarked car had followed Steve Moore from Berkeley. The officers decided to arrest Moore and initiated a traffic stop. When one officer stepped out of the car, Moore put his car in reverse and rammed the officer, pinning him against the unmarked police car, said Sgt. Nelson. His leg and hand were crushed. The other Berkeley police officer shot Moore.
When word spread that police had Steve Moore, numerous family members went to the hospital to try to see him, according to someone at the scene, who asked not to be named. Alameda County Sheriff’s deputies were not forthcoming about Moore’s condition and would not let family members in to see him.
“They were very upset and angry and it was just this side of a riot,” said the observer. “The Moore family was screaming and yelling and taunting them.”
The Moores moved out of 1610 Oregon Street in 2009 after neighbors and the city spent decades trying to get the family to leave. A group of 30 neighbors sued Lenora Moore twice, but were unable to shut the house down. In April 2009, the city of Berkeley won a permanent injunction to abate the Moore house, which was declared “a public nuisance.” After police used a search warrant to find drugs in the house in October 2009, the city won a court order to board up the house for a year. Berkeley sent in a crew to clean out the place, and the workers had to wear hazardous material suits to protect themselves.
The Moores finally moved out. GMAC Mortgage foreclosed on the house and it was sold in October 2010 for $192,500. The people who bought it completely remodeled it and listed it for sale for $459,000 in September 2011. A couple with a young child bought it.
Related:
Notorious Berkeley drug house now a real estate gem [09.09.11]
Notorious Berkeley drug house sold [11.16.10]
