OAKLAND — The mother of the man accused of killing Oakland police Officer Tuan Le has been booked on an accessory charge, the latest arrest in a widening investigation that has gripped the Bay Area since Le’s Dec. 29 death.
Felicia Williams, 48, was arrested Thursday afternoon on suspicion of accessory after the fact in the investigation into Le’s death. Williams is the mother of Mark Demetrious Sanders, the Stockton man who prosecutors have charged with firing the shots that killed Le, according to law enforcement sources.
Authorities say that Williams, who lists her profession as a chef, was arrested at her Oakland home and booked into jail at 3:07 p.m. Thursday afternoon. She remains jailed on a no-bail hold.
No charges have been filed as of yet against Williams. She has an arraignment date set for Jan. 8, but if she is not criminally charged by then she will likely be released from jail.
Police haven’t revealed how they identified her as an accessory suspect, nor what she’s alleged to have done to aid one of the other perpetrators. Le was shot and killed on the 400 block of Embarcadero while working an undercover detail in response to a cannabis business burglary on the early morning of Dec. 29.
Since Le’s death, prosecutors have charged Sanders and a second man, Allen Starr Brown, with murder. A third suspect, Sebron Russell, has been charged with burglarizing the dispensary, and a fourth suspect, Marquise Cooper, was arrested in Southern California on suspicion of burglary, authorities said. Prosecutors are expected to consider charges against Cooper when he is extradited to the Bay Area.
Police have announced that Le will have an “End of Watch” memorial on Jan. 10 in Castro Valley.
According to Oakland police, Le was with other plainclothes officers when he responded to a cannabis dispensary break-in at around 4:30 a.m. on Dec. 29. The same business had another reported burglary roughly three hours earlier.
Le was in a pickup truck which was backing out of the parking lot when Sanders allegedly opened fire at it, striking Le in the head.
Sanders, 27, Russell, 30, and Cooper, 34, were all on probation at the time for a strikingly similar burglary in Pittsburg. In that case, The three men allegedly burglarized a home that was being used to cultivate marijuana, and police later found a gun in one of their vehicles. They all received 120-day jail sentences and two-year probation terms, set to expire later this year.
It is Sanders’ second murder case in the past decade. In 2014, he was charged as a juvenile with murdering an 18-year-old man during a shootout in Oakland. He later pleaded no contest to manslaughter and was released from prison within five years, authorities said.
Court records from an earlier Alameda County case accuse Russell of being an “associate” of the Oakland-based Brookfield gang. He is being held in lieu of $200,000 bail, while his two co-defendants are being held without bail, records show.
Sanders kept his back turned to the gallery at his initial court appearance on Thursday. His attorney told reporters she hopes people will remember he’s presumed innocent and expressed her “deepest condolences to the family and friends of the fallen officer for his tragic death.”
