Gun that killed California muralist was stolen from U.S. agent: report
By Curtis Skinner
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The handgun used in the slaying of a California artist killed while painting a mural in the city of Oakland had been stolen from the car of a federal immigration agent, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on Wednesday.
Citing police in the Bay Area city, the newspaper said the weapon was stolen from a rental car being used by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in San Francisco about two weeks before the fatal shooting of 27-year-old Antonio Ramos.
The Oakland Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Reuters could not independently confirm the Chronicle's report.
James Schwab, an ICE spokesman, confirmed that a duty firearm was stolen from an agent's vehicle on Sept. 13, but declined to say whether it was linked to the Ramos case.
Alameda County prosecutors have charged Marquise Holloway, 20, with murdering the muralist.
They have said Holloway tried to rob Ramos, and then shot him, after approaching the painter while he worked on the Oakland Super Heroes Mural Project under Interstate 580 on the morning of Sept. 29.
The painting was organized by the Attitudinal Healing Connection, a West Oakland-based community organization that seeks to curb violence by engaging area youth in the arts.
Police have said Holloway admitted to the shooting but told them it was an accident and denied attempting to rob Ramos, according to charging documents provided by the district attorney's office.
Holloway is also charged in five other robberies in September and October, court documents showed. He is due to enter a plea on Wednesday.
Asked on Wednesday about the theft of the ICE agent's firearm, a San Francisco police spokesman confirmed the incident, but said someone other than Holloway was arrested in connection with it.
If the provenance of the weapon used to kill Ramos is confirmed, it would be at least the second deadly shooting in the Bay Area carried out with a stolen federal firearm in recent months.
In July, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management confirmed that the gun used to kill a woman walking in a popular tourist area of San Francisco had been stolen from the car of a federal law enforcement ranger.
(Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Peter Cooney)
