Suspect in Oakland killing in 2021 arrested in Missouri
A man suspected in the fatal shooting of security guard Kevin Nishita in Oakland in 2021 was arrested Wednesday near Kansas City, Mo., authorities said Thursday.
Laron Gilbert is one of three men charged in Alameda County Superior Court with murder and other alleged offenses in the shooting of Nishita. The two other defendants, Hershel Hale and Shadihia Mitchell, were arrested in 2021.
Nishita was a retired police officer who provided security services for several companies in the Bay Area. He was working as a security guard for KRON-TV on Nov. 24, 2021, when a group of men tried to steal a reporter’s camera on 14th Street near Harrison Street. Nishita was shot in the abdomen when he intervened, police said.
Gilbert, Mitchell and Hale were charged with murder, attempted robbery and assault with a semiautomatic gun.
Prosecutors said in court records that Mitchell was the shooter, but the Alameda County Public Defender’s Office said last month that prosecutors planned to dismiss allegations that Mitchell pulled the trigger.
Public Defender Brendon Woods said in a statement that evidence shows Gilbert was the shooter. Woods’ office said investigators tried to cover up the “incompetence” by making it seem Mitchell was the shooter.
The office said one of the investigators was Sgt. Phong Tran, who was charged last April with lying under oath in a murder case and trying to bribe and intimidate witnesses. Tran has pleaded not guilty.
Gilbert was arrested in connection with a parole violation about three weeks after Nishita’s killing, but he posted bail two days later, Oakland police said. In March 2022, police obtained a warrant for his arrest in the fatal shooting.
Earlier this month, police suspected Gilbert was possibly in Kansas City and asked the U.S. Marshals Service to help them find and arrest Gilbert.
On Wednesday, a task force spotted and followed him to Blue Springs, Mo., about 20 miles east of Kansas City. As task force members approached Gilbert in a parking lot, he ran across a highway, but he was arrested soon after, the U.S. Marshals Service said in a statement.
Gilbert was booked into Jackson County Detention Center and is expected to be returned to Alameda County to face the criminal charges, officials said.