21-year-old killed in El Cerrito shopping center shooting identified
Deadly El Cerrito shooting happened after last Flock cameras removed
The shooting death of a man outside a busy El Cerrito restaurant happened days after the last of the city's license-plate cameras were removed after concerns over data-sharing.
EL CERRITO, Calif. - A 21-year-old man who was shot and killed inside his car at a busy El Cerrito shopping center on Sunday afternoon has been identified.
KTVU's Henry Lee reported that the victim was 21-year-old Jakai Couch, who was expecting a child with his girlfriend. Authorities said Couch was likely targeted in the attack.
The shooting occurred around 12:15 p.m. outside the Los Moles restaurant at the Del Norte Plaza shopping center on San Pablo Avenue. Couch was sitting in his red Toyota Camry with two passengers when two young men approached the vehicle. According to El Cerrito police, one of the men got into the back seat directly behind Couch and opened fire.
Fatal attack at Del Norte Plaza
What we know:
Following the shooting, the two men fled in a Nissan Maxima driven by a third person. Authorities have not confirmed whether the suspects arrived at the shopping center in the Maxima, but they used it as a getaway vehicle. Vallejo police later recovered the car.
Richmond police arrested 18-year-old Jacari Gibson on suspicion of murder. El Cerrito police suspect that Gibson allegedly acted as a lookout during the crime.
Police have not released new information regarding the identity or location of the shooter or the getaway driver.
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License-plate camera removal delays investigation
Dig deeper:
The fatal shooting occurred just days after El Cerrito removed the last of its city license-plate cameras.
El Cerrito Police Chief Paul Keith said that the removal lengthened the time it took for investigators to identify the vehicle wanted in connection with the homicide. Among the removed equipment were two cameras situated on either side of the shopping center at Potrero Avenue near Interstate 80 and at San Pablo Avenue.
All 40 of the city's cameras had been offline since June, when El Cerrito terminated its contract with Flock after discovering that some license-plate data was shared with federal agencies.
With the license plate readers gone, investigators had to partner with outside agencies that still had active license-plate reader access to identify the Nissan Maxima's plate.
The Source: The information in this story was gathered from KTVU reporter Henry Lee, as well as previous interviews and statements from El Cerrito Police Chief Paul Keith.