Police arrest Berkeley man with guns after robbery

A man fingered in a photo line-up as responsible for a robbery in Berkeley in late August has been charged by the Alameda County district attorney’s office with four felonies and a misdemeanor, according to court papers.

In a document related to the arrest of 26-year-old Keith Deon Golson on Oct. 3, police said Golson was identified as the man responsible for an Aug. 30 robbery in Berkeley of a pedestrian with a cell phone.

Police later obtained a search warrant for Golson’s home, in the 1800 block of Woolsey Street, and said they located the jacket he allegedly wore the night of the robbery. Police found 13 individually-wrapped pieces of suspected cocaine base for sale in the living room, along with a used razor blade and unused packaging material, as well as a cell phone and $105 in mixed bills.

Police said they found, in Golson’s room, a .380-caliber semi-automatic gun and a short-barreled shotgun, and ammunition for both. Police said Golson told them he had the cocaine for personal use, that “he acknowledged that he punched the Robbery (sic) victim” on Aug. 30, “putting himself at the scene when the victim had his cell phone taken.”

In an Oct. 7 complaint from the district attorney’s office, Golson was charged with felony possession of a controlled substance with a firearm; felony possession for sale of cocaine base; felony second-degree robbery; felony possession of a short-barreled rifle or shotgun; and misdemeanor assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury.

Golson remains in custody at Santa Rita Jail with a bail of $170,000. He is scheduled for a pre-trial hearing Oct. 16 at 9:05 a.m. at the Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse in downtown Oakland.

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Emilie Raguso