Suspect linked to killing that preceded controversial police shooting

Man is arrested in Chicago and is being held there in connection with the death of Jacqui Amir Biggins, 27

SAN JOSE >> A Chicago man has been linked to a fatal shooting in downtown San Jose in late March that preceded a controversial police shooting a few hundred feet away, authorities said.

The man arrested in the homicide, 31-year-old Ronnell Spencer, is currently being held in jail in Cook County, Illinois, on unrelated domestic violence and weapons charges, according to San Jose police and jail records.

Authorities in Santa Clara County are working to extradite Spencer back to the Bay Area to face prosecution for the shooting that killed Jacqui Amir Biggins. The 27-year-old Antioch resident died in the early morning hours of March 27 near Fourth and San Carlos streets near San Jose State University.

Spencer was arrested in Chicago on May 15 and is being held without bond, records show. An investigation by San Jose police in the March shooting culminated in an arrest warrant being issued for Spencer a few days after the Chicago arrest. In the ensuing weeks, detectives arranged to visit and interview Spencer in jail there.

But it could be several weeks or longer before Spencer returns to California. That process would be delayed If he challenges extradition, if Cook County prosecutors insist on first trying him for his alleged crimes there, or both.

Police have not disclosed a potential motive for the March 27 shooting, which ended up also serving as a backdrop of a high-profile police shooting nearby, In that incident, an officer wounded 20-year-old K'aun Green, an Oakland resident and former football star at McClymonds High School who was pursuing an NFL career.

About 20 minutes after Biggins was shot, a group of police officers working the crime scene rushed over to a nearby taqueria after fleeing patrons described a fight and a gun sighting. Green was shot after he and a friend disarmed a man during a brawl that Green did not instigate, according to Green and his attorneys, and corroborated by video surveillance.

Green is now suing the city and police department in that incident. Police said officers' response had to consider that Biggins' shooter might be at the restaurant, while Green's attorneys argue that police should have sorted out the situation before shooting a man who actually made the scene safer.

Anyone with information about the March 27 shooting that resulted in the death of Jacqui Amir Biggins can contact SJPD homicide unit at 408-2775283 or email Detective Sgt. Isidro Bagon at 3589@ sanjoseca.gov or Detective Sean Ancelet at 4173@sanjoseca.gov. Tips can be left with Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers at 408-947-7867 or at svcrimestoppers.org.