A beloved Oakland auto shop owner, who’s been a pillar in the neighborhood since the 1990s, was gunned down in broad daylight while he worked at his store on Feb. 3.
Aristeo Zambrano, 68, who immigrated from Mexico in the 1970s and worked in the United Farm Workers (UFW) movement, was on the verge of retiring from the shop, Bay City Alternators after nearly 30 years, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
He was pronounced dead at his shop about 3 miles from the Oakland Arena.
The motives behind the shooting remain unclear.
“It’s not fair that he worked so hard all his life, he never hurt anyone,” his daughter, Maria Ayala, told the outlet.
Before he was killed, Zambrano had been warned multiple times by family members that they were worried for his safety in the crime-ridden neighborhood.
He is survived by three daughters and six grandchildren.
Zambrano fought for wage increases as a leader and union representative with the UFW in the 1970s, the outlet added.
He later moved to Oakland and eventually worked his way to opening Bay City Alternators.
Zambrano’s death early this month marked the tenth homicide of the year in Oakland, according to the outlet. Two other homicides have been reported since Zambrano’s murder.
The grandfather’s killing has only fueled the ongoing efforts for Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price to resign from office, as the crime rate in the community has only worsened since she took office.
Earlier this month, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he planned to “deploy” state attorneys to the spiraling city to “boost law enforcement capacity in Oakland and the East Bay to investigate, analyze and prosecute suspects in violent, property and serious drug-related crimes.”
Violent crime is on an uptick in Alameda County, where it jumped almost 20% in 2023 compared to 2019, with businesses including In-N-Out shutting down because of rampant crime.
It marked the first time in the chain’s 75-year-old history that it has been forced to close one of its restaurants.
Alameda County has one of the highest crime rates in America, according to Neighborhood Scout.
There were 126 reported homicides in 2023, according to a citywide crime report.
Newsom’s initiative comes as crime rates soar in Oakland and videos of frightening carjackings — including one of a 67-year-old woman being pistol-whipped and dragged across the pavement by two young men — surfaced last month.
Price herself was subjected to a robbery from her car in Oct. 2023, when thieves made off with her laptop.
The woke DA reportedly called the police, but after an hour of waiting at the scene with no officers responding, decided to report the incident online.