Pair charged in Oakland Wendy's drive-through slaying
OAKLAND (KTVU and wires) -- Two men, one of them an ex-convict, have been charged with murder for the fatal shooting of an 18-year-old woman in Oakland's Fruitvale district in July 2014, according to documents.
Ayana Dominguez's death had gone unsolved for more than a year until the Alameda County District Attorney's Office recently filed charges against 22-year-old Dwight Bradford and 36-year-old Jermaine Godfrey.
Oakland police homicide Lt. Roland Holmgren said at a news conference in June about unsolved murder cases that Dominguez and her boyfriend were in a drive-thru lane at a Wendy's fast food restaurant in the
3100 block of International Boulevard near Fruitvale Avenue at about 8:45 p.m. on July 10, 2014, when their car was "riddled with bullets."
Dominguez was pronounced dead at a hospital shortly after the shooting but her boyfriend survived his gunshot wounds.
Holmgren said police believe Dominguez wasn't the intended target in the shooting, but he declined to say who investigators think was the target.
Dominguez graduated from Berkeley Technology Academy in June 2014 and had interned at the Association of Bay Area Governments in Oakland in a program aimed at helping at-risk youth develop work skills.
Although Oakland police discussed Dominguez's case at the June 15 news conference near the location where she was killed and later released a sketch of a suspect and a photo of the suspect vehicle, they didn't make any
announcement about the arrest of Bradford and Godfrey and the charges against them.
Holmgren said Oakland police were putting up posters throughout the city as part of a new initiative in which they are seeking the public's help in finding suspect in cold case murders such as that of Dominguez.
Bradford and Godfrey are charged with murder for Dominguez's death and premeditated attempted murder for the shooting of her boyfriend.
Prosecutors allege that Bradford is the suspect who shot Dominguez and her boyfriend.
In addition, Godfrey is charged with being an ex-felon in possession of a firearm and possession for sale of cocaine for allegedly having the drug when he was arrested in Oakland on July 17.
Prosecutors allege that Godfrey has two prior convictions for the sale and transportation of a controlled substance.
Bradford and Godfrey are being held without bail at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin and are scheduled to return to Alameda County Superior Court on Aug. 31 to enter pleas.
At the news conference on June 15, Dominguez's mother, Autumn Blueford, said, "She was a very sweet human being who touched a lot of people's lives. She had a lot of ambition and wanted to be a cosmetologist
but all her dreams were shattered when she was shot."
Blueford said, "Not a day goes by when I don't think of her and feel pain and sadness."