OAKLAND -- A deadly car wreck
related to notorious East Oakland "sideshow" gatherings has left a woman dead, a
man in jail and top city officials calling for tough new laws to deter the
troublesome activities.
A 22-year-old Oakland woman died early Saturday in the passenger seat of a
2002 Chevrolet Cavalier when the car was broadsided by a speeding 1979 Buick,
which moments earlier had been spinning "doughnuts" as part of a sideshow,
police said.
The Buick's driver ran from the crash scene at the corner of Seminary and
Avenal avenues, but police captured him.
The suspect, Eric Crawford, 27, of Oakland, once
served two years in prison for shooting a man to death in 1993, authorities
confirmed.
Crawford was arrested on suspicion of murder, felony hit-and-run and drunken
driving. Police said they found an open bottle of cognac in Crawford's car and
that he could face prosecution under "Three Strikes, You're Out" laws.
U'Kendra Johnson of Oakland was killed instantly in the collision, which left
the Cavalier in a mangle of metal.
"There is just more and more lives being taken and everyone is like 'who
gives a damn,'" said her mother, Winne Johnson. "I'm not angry at anybody. I'm
just going to leave it in God's hands because I know someday I'm going to see
her again."
A graduate of Oakland High School, U'Kendra Johnson
worked for AT&T Wireless in Livermore. She had car-pooled to work Friday
with a 25-year-old friend from San Leandro, who was driving home early Saturday
when the crash occurred.
The driver was too distraught to speak Saturday afternoon, as her friend's
mother embraced her and told her, "I know it's not your fault."
Johnson said her daughter dreamed of entering culinary school and "loved"
designing clothes and decorating their home on 76th Avenue.
"She was just so outgoing," Winne Johnson said. "We were like sisters. We'd
open up with each other."
Reacting to the news, Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown said he wants the state to
enact emergency laws giving police the power to impound any car involved in
sideshows for 30 days.
"We need that sanction as a deterrent," Brown said. "You impound a few
hundred cars, that ought to help. Let them take BART home to San Francisco or
wherever they come from."
The city has struggled since the late 1980s to curb sideshow gatherings,
which lure people from throughout the Bay Area to an often dangerous late-night
mixture of crowds, stunts in fast cars and alcohol.
"They are invading the sanctity of the neighborhoods in the middle of the
night," Brown said.
City officials have contacted Sen. Don Perata, D-Oakland, and Assemblymember
Wilma Chan, D-Alameda, to carry legislation to crack down on sideshow-related
problems.
Perata's draft bill would allow police to tow any car whose driver has been
cited as a "speed exhibitionist." He thinks the idea may get less resistance if
it's an emergency measure, limited to Oakland in a two-year experiment.
"Historically this type of thing has been opposed by civil libertarians,"
Perata said. "It's the people who live in the clouds versus the people who live
in the neighborhoods."
He said Saturday's tragedy, which Oakland police traffic Officers Don
Tirapelli and Dennis Franckowski said was definitely sideshow-related, was
"destined to happen."
Sideshow shooting
The deadly car wreck was not the only violence linked to sideshow activities
Saturday, police said. At about 2:45 a.m. a man was shot five times in the
parking lot of a grocery store in the 600 block of Hegenberger Road that is a
regular gathering spot for sideshow participants.
The man, who was in stable condition at a local hospital, told police he did
not know who shot him. Officers said at least 200 people were in the lot when
the shooting happened, "but no one came forward."
During the years, sideshows have been blamed for numerous incidents of
reckless driving, crashes, physical assaults and congested streets that have
nearby residents concerned and angry.
Police have issued thousands of citations, arrested hundreds of people and
towed hundreds of vehicles in an effort to combat the activity.
In the latest incident, at about 2:25 a.m. Saturday, officers saw Crawford
allegedly spinning his 1979 Buick Park Avenue at 61st Avenue and Foothill
Boulevard, while a crowd cheered him on, Tirapelli said.
Officers in patrol cars could not immediately get through the large number of
vehicles.
Crawford drove south on 61st Avenue and turned into the westbound lanes of
Avenal Avenue, where the vehicle sped off "way in excess of the posted 25 mph
limit," Tirapelli said.
At the intersection of Seminary and Avenal avenues, Crawford failed to stop
at a stop sign, police said. The car plowed into the passenger side of the
Chevrolet, going north on Seminary. The impact sent the Buick into a parked car
and the Chevrolet into a wall of an apartment in the 2400 block of Seminary.
The Chevrolet driver, who was treated and released from a local hospital,
told police she did not remember being hit.
"I'm surprised she is alive," Tirapelli said.
The woman had bought the Chevrolet on Tuesday. She and Johnson had left an
East Oakland club about 12 a.m. and stopped to watch sideshow activities, the
driver told police.
When things "started to get crazy" at Foothill and Seminary, they decided to
go home, and were hit by the Buick, she said.
Police said some of the same people cheering Crawford on while he was doing
the doughnuts were also at the site of the collision, "whooping and hollering"
and filming the frantic scene.
"They thought it was a big joke," Tirapelli said.
Winne Johnson was not angry at the revelers, but wants them to understand the
consequences of their behavior. "My child could still be here right now but she
was a victim of their actions," she said.
Suspect's past crimes
This isn't the first time Crawford has been in trouble, police said. In 1993
he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter after fatally shooting a friend who
was wearing a bulletproof vest, authorities said. Homicide investigators at the
time called the case one of "bulletproof vest roulette."
Crawford had been shot wearing the vest and was not hurt. However, when he
shot at the friend who had put the vest on, he hit him in a part of the body the
vest did not cover, police said.
Crawford also has a 1998 conviction for being an ex-felon in possession of a
gun, authorities said. In 1995 he was charged with possession of cocaine for
sale, but in a plea bargain was convicted of a lesser charge of simple
possession and placed on probation, authorities said.
