Police ID San Leandro homicide victim

SAN LEANDRO (BCN) --  A man who was struck and killed with a pickup truck when he tried to stop a man who allegedly was stealing pallets from a wholesale food warehouse in San Leandro on Monday was identified by police today as Takeshi Watanabe of San Leandro.

Watanabe, 54, was an employee at the True World Foods San Francisco warehouse at 1815 Williams St. in San Leandro.

He was struck and killed at about 11:45 a.m. Monday after he got into an altercation with another man, later identified as Kadeem Edwards, 27, of Richmond, in the rear area where trucks load food products for delivery, San Leandro police spokesman Lt. Robert McManus said.

Watanabe was pronounced dead at the scene and the incident is being investigated as a homicide, McManus said.

It appears that Watanabe was trying to stop Edwards from stealing wood pallets that were stacked in the rear parking lot, McManus said.

Edwards fled the scene but was arrested at about 5 p.m. Monday after officers spotted the pickup truck in question on East 12th Street near 47th Avenue in Oakland, near a pallet recycling business, according to McManus.

Edwards, who is being held without bail, hasn't yet been formally charged but is tentatively scheduled to be arraigned in Alameda County Superior Court in Hayward at 2 p.m. Wednesday.