🚨NO WHITE SUPREMACISTS INVOLVED🚨
🚨NO ISLAMIC JIHADISTS INVOLVED🚨
ABC7 News Bay Area published March 11, 2025: Wild Oakland shootout tied to former Mayor Sheng Thao corruption case?
Mario Juarez, who is a potential witness in the federal corruption case against former Mayor Sheng Thao and others, tells the I-Team he can't be in Oakland right now. He says he still fears for his life after being shot at in front of his Fruitvale home.
ABC7 News, Bay Area, SF local
written by Dan Noyes
Tuesday March 11, 2025
OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- We are learning more about a wild shootout that may be connected to the federal corruption case involving former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao. We're hearing from the man targeted in that shooting, and a witness who saw it all happen.
Mario Juarez is in a difficult place. He can't speak out because he could be a witness in that federal corruption case against former Mayor Sheng Thao and others. Still, he wants to know why police arrested two suspects in December for the shooting at his home -- but released them without warning him.
You can still see a bullet hole in the rain gutter at Mario Juarez's house in the Fruitvale neighborhood, nine months after the shootout.
Sheila Campos lives across the street. She tells me she was headed to work after 9 p.m. when she saw a car drive by three times, firing at Juarez's house and Suburban. "And then it stopped there, and it shot like two times," she told the I-Team.
On the last pass, Mario Juarez came outside with his 40-caliber Glock.
"And he started shooting back," Campos said. "Like firing back. Pow, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow. And the car just kind of skeeted off but kind of fast. He was in the middle of the street shooting, like, trying to get him."
The I-Team's Dan Noyes has been speaking with Mario Juarez by an encrypted phone app. He tells us he can't be in Oakland right now, because he still fears for his life. He sent a written statement first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle that says, "Two suspects were nabbed in December 2024, tied to these attacks. But justice? It never came."
Oakland police made the arrests, but the DA's Office - just days after Pamela Price left office because of the recall - allowed the suspects to walk without charges, and without informing Juarez that the men who may have shot at him were back on the streets.
Dan Noyes: "It's an issue of safety, right?"
Ernie Castillo: "Yes, absolutely. It's definitely an issue of safety."
Ernie Castillo is Mario Juarez's attorney.
Castillo: "When you have people come to your house and you get into a shootout and people shoot at you, that's a huge concern. So, we should have been notified by that former administration 100%."
Mario Juarez recently had a fraud case against him dropped; he was accused of bouncing checks for a mailer that supported Sheng Thao in her race for mayor. As part of that case, Juarez accused then-District Attorney Pamela Price of demanding $25,000 from him to help her recall, saying when he refused, she filed the criminal case against him.
Castillo said, "And in that motion were declarations and statements by witnesses, including Mario Juarez, that the former administration had tried to shakedown Mario for $25,000. And if he had not contributed to that campaign for $25,000, then they would charge him."
Through her attorneys, Price denied asking Juarez for money.
Back to the shooting in June - neighbors confirm to me that the day after the gunfire, the FBI canvassed the neighborhood looking for witnesses and surveillance video. And just 10 days later, agents raided the homes of then-Mayor Sheng Thao, her partner Andre Jones, and David and Andy Duong, owners of California Waste Solutions. They're all charged with Conspiracy, Bribery, Mail and Wire Fraud and more. Federal prosecutors also claim Thao agreed to purchase modular units for the homeless from Evolutionary Homes, a company run by the Duongs and Mario Juarez.
Though he is not named in the indictment, Juarez appears to be unindicted "co-conspirator 1" who acted as a go-between for the Duongs and Sheng Thao. Now, Mario Juarez says, "They saw me as a threat-not because I'm perfect, but because I wouldn't bow. They wanted me dead to keep their secrets safe, to silence a voice that wouldn't shut up. They picked the wrong man."
The DA's office tells us they're taking a fresh look at the shooting case. One month before that happened, Mario Juarez says he was beaten by 10 men outside the headquarters of California Waste Solutions. He is expected to testify in the federal corruption case.
ABC7 News Bay Area published March 25, 2025: EXCLUSIVE: Suspect in Oakland shootout with witness in Sheng Thao corruption probe speaks out.
He claims it was self-defense, but a man admits shooting at a key witness in the federal corruption case against former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and others. But he says, it was all a mistake. "I go to play soccer in the park." Here's what the I-Team's Dan Noyes uncovered in an exclusive interview.
ABC7 News, Bay Area, SF local
written by Dan Noyes
Wednesday March 26, 2025
OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- He claims it was self-defense, but a man admits shooting at a key witness in the federal corruption case against former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and others.
This case keeps taking twists and turns, and the I-Team's Dan Noyes got that exclusive interview on Tuesday after a hearing in Oakland Superior Court. We have two people who were firing at each other. Their stories are similar in some ways, but very different in others.
In Oakland Superior Court Tuesday morning, 24-year-old Hermelindo Ramos-Ramos made his first appearance, facing felony charges of "shooting at an inhabited dwelling" and "shooting at an unoccupied vehicle" plus several gun and violent conduct enhancements.
Ramos-Ramos admitted to Dan Noyes that he fired a handgun at Mario Juarez, believed to be "co-conspirator 1" - an important key witness - in the federal corruption indictment against former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, her boyfriend Andre Jones, and the owners of California Waste Solutions, David and Andy Duong.
But he says, it was all a mistake. "I go to play soccer in the park."
Ramos-Ramos says he was heading home from Josie De La Cruz Park when he spotted Mario Juarez's Suburban parked in front of his house with the trunk open. "And then we finish play soccer, I tried to go my home", Ramos-Ramos said. "When I go to my home, I see that his car open. I tried to close it. And then he shooted me."
The I-Team's Dan Noyes reached Mario Juarez and he confirms firing first. He tells us suspects in two cars were breaking into his SUV, banging bricks against the windows - you can see a brick on the ground, red marks from bricks on the windows - in photos Juarez provided.
Juarez said he heard the noise, went outside and spotted someone in his SUV, and "... behind him sat multiple cars, double-parked, with engines running-and from one of them, a man pointed a gun directly at me. In that moment, I knew I was facing death. I fired. He fired. We exchanged gunfire. I ran and took cover inside the house."
While he waited for police, Juarez says the cars returned twice over half an hour and fired again.
DAN NOYES: "And you carry a gun all the time?"
HERMELINDO RAMOS-RAMOS: "No, it's not my gun. Does somebody give."
DAN NOYES: "Whose gun was it?"
HERMELINDO RAMOS-RAMOS: "I don't know."
DAN NOYES: "Someone in your car?"
Mario Juarez was a founding partner with David and Andy Duong in Evolutionary Homes, a company that tried to sell homeless shelters made out of shipping containers. Juarez told me today he believes that Ramos-Ramos may have some connection to the Duongs.
Lawyers for both David and Andy Duong emailed me late today that they strongly deny the allegation that they were in any way involved in this incident. Ramos-Ramos also said he never heard of David or Andy Duong. He's back in court next month.
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