Arrest made in shooting of little girl

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Aug 26, 2006 | by Harry Harris, STAFF WRITER

OAKLAND -- A suspected West Oakland drug dealer has been arrested for the Aug. 9 shooting of a rival that also left a 3-year-old girl with a bullet lodged in her forehead, police said Friday.

The girl has since undergone surgery to remove the bullet, and police said they have been told she will fully recover, Sgt. Mike Gantt said Friday.

Gantt said the suspect, Demetrius Kellogg, 19, admitted his involvement in the shooting but said he never intended to hurt the child, "and I believe him."

Gantt said he thinks one of the several bullets that hit the intended target, Jermaine A. Cooper, 22, passed through him and struck the girl.

Gantt said Cooper was targeted by Kellogg because of "the creed of the streets" suspected criminals follow.

He said Cooper and Kellogg are suspected members of rival West Oakland drug gangs.

Gantt said the day before Cooper was shot he confronted Kellogg in the area of 30th and Linden streets, threatened him with a gun and taunted him about how easy it had been to sneak up on him. But Cooper did not shoot Kellogg.

Gantt said that violated the street creed of "never pulling a gun on someone unless you intend to use it, because they will come back on you."

On Aug. 9 an armed Kellogg began hunting Cooper, Gantt said. He found him about 8 p.m. talking to the girl's mother in the 2900 block of Linden Street as the little girl played nearby.

Kellogg walked up to Cooper and shot him several times, including a few rounds in the back, said Gantt. He said physical evidence indicates one of the bullets went through Cooper and hit the girl.

Kellogg told Gantt and Sgt. Ron Lighten he shot Cooper because "he had to do something" because Cooper had "disrespected me," Gantt said.

Cooper, who was left paralyzed from the waist down, has refused to cooperate with police, Gantt said. He is still hospitalized.

But others began calling police saying Kellogg was the gunman.

Thursday afternoon, Gantt told members of the department's Targeted Enforcement Task Force to start looking for Kellogg. About 9:28 p.m. task force Officers Omega Crum and Jack Kelly spotted him leaving a house in the 1100 block of Willow Street in a car with three others. The car was stopped a few blocks away and Kellogg was arrested. He tried to give a false name but the officers knew him from previous contacts.

At the Willow Street house, which police called Kellogg's stash pad, police found a sawed-off shotgun and ammunition, Gantt said.

Kellogg was arrested on suspicion of two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. He is scheduled to be formally charged Monday.