Oakley pizza delivery driver shot and killed
Police: Shooting happened Wednesday in a `relatively quiet' part of the city
“There is absolutely zero excuse for what happened tonight. When you consider the victim's family witnessed this act and when you take into account the time of the year we are in it makes this all that more sad.” — Paul Beard, Oakley police chief
A 24-year-old man on a break from his job as a pizza delivery worker was shot and killed outside his home Wednesday in Oakley, police said.
He was identified by the coroner's office Thursday as Gabriel Stewart.
Shots were reported around 4:50 p.m. in the 1400 block of Rutherford Lane, near Vintage Parkway Elementary, Oakley Police Chief Paul Beard said in a statement. Officers arrived to find the victim in his vehicle suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.
He received emergency medical care but was pronounced dead just after 5 p.m., Beard said.
Beard said an investigation determined the man, later identified as Stewart, was sitting in his parked vehicle when another car pulled up alongside him. A passenger then got out and shot the man at close range. At the time, the victim was taking a break from a job delivering pizzas, Beard said.
The passenger got back into the car, which last was seen traveling westbound on Rutherford Lane and then turning north onto
Vintage Parkway, according to Beard.
A suspect description was not immediately available, but Beard said detectives “will be working hard on this case and I will share any pertinent information I can in the days to come.”
Beard said he spoke to the victim's mother, who witnessed the shooting. He noted that the crime happened in a “relatively quiet area of Oakley and right across from a school — an area where we do not expect violence to occur.”
“There is absolutely zero excuse for what happened tonight,” Beard said. “When you consider the victim's family witnessed this act and when you take into account the time of the year we are in it makes this all that more sad.”
Beard urged anyone with information related to the case to contact the case agent at 925-325-6670 or dombrouski@ci.oakley.ca, or police dispatch at 925625-8060.