Berkeley police have released some surveillance and body camera footage from a Sept. 21 homicide investigation and police shooting in Albany where Berkeley officers were the first on scene.
There are still several open administrative investigations into the shooting, which police say began when 24-year-old Lamar Walker of Vacaville went to the Toyota of Berkeley Certified Service Center on Eastshore Highway to kill 24-year-old Alonna Gallon, an employee with whom he shared a child.
The video, which Berkeley police published on YouTube Friday morning, contains audio from a 911 call, clips from a surveillance camera inside the service center and other clips from officers’ body-worn cameras. Due to the graphic and violent content of the video, Berkeleyside has opted not to republish it here, but you can view it on the Berkeley Police Department’s YouTube page.
The 911 caller tells a dispatcher there is an “active shooter at Toyota of Berkeley” and gives the address, and another voice in the background says, “He’s in the building, he’s in the building.” More audio of a dispatcher indicates that “we do have a GSW (gunshot wound) victim.” Police said several 911 calls were coming in at once.
A clip from the service center surveillance camera shows a man, whom police identified as Walker, from behind, approaching a worker sitting at a desk, whom police identified as Gallon. Her features are blurred, as are those of another person working at a different desk. The man appears to take something out of his pocket or waistband with his right hand before the clip stops.
“Mr. Walker retrieves firearm and fires multiple shots at the victim,” a box of text in the video reads.
The next clip, from an officer’s body camera, shows police outside the service center directing people to take cover.
Another body camera clip shows officers with rifles gathering in an indoor stairwell and climbing to the second floor. Once there, in a small portion of the field of view, someone is moving, and the officers tell the person to put their “hands up” several times before firing. When the firing stops, a voice says “shots fired” and “suspect down,” and another says “possible DOA.”
Police said the officers who climbed to the second floor saw Walker aim a revolver at them and that they found Gallon dead on the floor next to Walker with a gunshot wound to her head.
Another clip from the surveillance camera shows Walker, nearly prone behind the desk he had first walked up to, raising something in his right arm and pointing it at the officers as they emerge from a hallway. A visual effect obscures Walker once the officers fire. The same effect appears to obscure someone on the ground between Walker and the dividing wall.
“The victim, Ms. Gallon, received a fatal gunshot wound from Mr. Walker before the arrival of officers,” the text in the video reads. “Mr. Walker had unsuccessfully attempted suicide, and the officers’ gunfire fatally wounded Mr. Walker after he pointed a firearm at them.”
The Albany Police Department is the lead agency investigating Gallon’s killing.
“The Albany Police Department, as an investigating agency of the homicide, has a responsibility to investigate the events that led to the suspect shooting the victim in an effort to understand what caused this heinous act,” Brennen Brown, a spokesperson for Albany, said in an email in response to an inquiry from Berkeleyside. “That has been the primary focus of the investigation. Because the investigation is still ongoing, additional information is not available at this time.”
The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office and Alameda County District Attorney’s Office are reviewing the officers’ gunfire. Lt. Tya Modeste, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, said there was no new information they could share as of Friday.
“The investigations are still underway, but in the interest of transparency, we wanted to provide you with what information we can right now,” Berkeley police spokesperson Officer Jessica Perry says in the final segment of the video. “It is possible that our understanding of this incident could change as these investigations unfold.”
“Ms. Gallon’s death was a senseless act of violence that left a young boy without his mother, a child she was co-parenting with Mr. Walker,” Perry says in the video.
Per department policy, the Berkeley officers who shot Walker were put on temporary administrative assignments afterward but have since returned to their regular assignments, Perry confirmed in an email.
Berkeleyside inquired as to how authorities determined Walker had fatally shot Gallon.
“That will be a question that will be answered once the other investigations are complete,” Perry said in an email.
