Two men with a gun fired it twice in separate incidents Sunday night in Berkeley and one of them pointed the gun at a woman walking alone that night when she rejected his “flirtatious advances,” police report.
Both men have been charged with several gun-related felonies and remain in custody at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, according to court records online. Police identified the men as Dante Oliver, 38 (no address listed), and Jessie McAllister, 26, of Oakland.
Berkeleyside reported previously that police had arrested both men at Telegraph Avenue and Parker Street on Sunday night. That night, an officer heard gunfire in the area shortly after 10 and said he then saw both men outside the 7-Eleven there. When they were detained, the men had a stolen handgun, as well as a high-capacity magazine and additional ammunition, BPD said in a prepared statement in response to a Berkeleyside inquiry.
Police said they learned in the course of their investigation about two related incidents earlier that night.
At 8 p.m., a woman in her 20s was walking on San Pablo Avenue near University Avenue and she saw someone later identified as Oliver following her. According to police, the man “made flirtatious advances” at the woman, then pulled out a gun and pointed it at her when she rejected him. The woman ran to a nearby business for safety, police said.
Twenty minutes later, officers from the University of California Police Department got an alert from Cal’s Shotspotter system about gunfire in the 2500 block of Haste Street, which runs along the north side of People’s Park.
“Although there were no victims or damage from gunfire found that evening, BPD detectives later learned that the suspects involved in the Telegraph Avenue/Parker Street incident had just come from People’s Park,” BPD reported. “When BPD searched People’s Park the following morning, they found evidence of another shooting.”
On Tuesday, the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office charged Oliver with several felonies, including assault with a semiautomatic firearm. He was also charged with the misdemeanor crime of exhibiting a gun. Oliver has one felony conviction, from 2015 for domestic violence, according to court records online.
Oliver and McAllister were each charged with being a convicted person in possession of a firearm and ammunition, and carrying a loaded firearm, which are felonies.
Oliver is being held on $310,000 bail and is scheduled to enter a plea in the case Tuesday at the East County Hall of Justice in Dublin.
McAllister is being held on approximately $470,000 bail. He appears to have been arrested again while in custody Tuesday on suspicion of battery on a police officer and obstruction, both of which are listed as felonies.
McAllister has several prior felony convictions from separate cases in 2014 related to assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury and burglary.
He is scheduled for his preliminary hearing — when a judge decides whether there is enough evidence for a case to proceed to trial — on July 30, according to court records online.
Gunfire to date
There have been about a dozen confirmed gunfire calls in Berkeley in 2020. Two of them left people dead.
On June 15, a 19-year-old UC Berkeley student was shot in the head while walking in his neighborhood. No arrests have been made in that investigation. A $50,000 reward has been offered to help solve the case.
In March, authorities charged a Richmond couple after an apparent road rage incident that month left a 29-year-old man dead.
In April, a woman was wounded in a shooting near People’s Park.
Several of the incidents had no reported victims: at the Berkeley Marina in February, and in North Berkeley and West Berkeley in March.
Police also found evidence of gunfire in the 1600 block of Russell Street in April; and in June in the 2400 block of Curtis Street, at Ninth Street and Channing Way, and at Oregon and California streets.
