77-year-old charged with murder in shooting death of mentally-ill man in Fremont

A 77-year-old man has been charged with murder by the Alameda County district attorney in the shooting death of a mentally-ill man in Fremont earlier this week. 

Franklin Lynch, being held by Fremont police, is accused of shooting and killing a man at Doane and Lindenwood streets on Tuesday. 

"It don’t even make sense," the defendant’s stepson said. "All the evidence says that guy [the victim who was killed] is extremely dangerous." The stepson had claimed Lynch shot the unnamed victim in self-defense after the shooting victim tried to attack Lynch in his driveway. 

On the night of the shooting, a neighbor at the scene said, "When I tried to park my car, like a crazy guy was running towards me and kept saying ‘he gonna kill me, gonna kill me.’ "

A second cousin of the victim said his family member was not aggressive. "He would talk nonsense, but he was never aggressive towards anyone," said Karthik Manivannan.

The victim's family said he was suffering a mental health episode at the time of the shooting and that they had tried to get him mental health services in the past. 

The victim and Lynch were apparently neighbors.  

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KTVU's Henry Lee contributed to this report.