Roosevelt Jones Jr., a 33-year-old man, died on April 19, 2025, after being shot during an attempted robbery he was committing in Oakland’s Uptown district. The incident occurred shortly after midnight on the 500 block of 18th Street.
According to authorities, Jones and his cousin, Jashawndre Upshaw, both from Oakland, approached a Richmond resident and tried to rob him of a diamond necklace. When Jones allegedly threw the man to the pavement, the intended victim, who was armed, pulled out a gun and shot Jones multiple times in what police described as an act of self-defense.
Upshaw, who was also allegedly armed, drove his mortally wounded cousin to a hospital emergency room, but Jones died from his injuries. When questioned by police, Upshaw claimed he was a block away near a nightclub, had only heard the shooting, and did not know how his cousin was wounded.
However, investigators reviewed surveillance footage that showed a second armed man alongside Jones during the robbery attempt, wearing the same outfit that Upshaw had on at the hospital.
Police arrested Jashawndre Upshaw, then 33, two days after the shooting. Alameda County prosecutors charged him with murder, attempted robbery, and gun possession by a felon. The murder charge was filed under California’s provocative act doctrine, a legal theory that can hold an accomplice responsible for a death when their crime provokes a victim to use lawful, fatal self-defense. Another man, Maurice Herron, was also investigated after his ankle monitor data placed him at the scene, but he was ultimately charged only with firearm possession.
Upshaw was initially booked into Santa Rita Jail and held without bail. In mid-July 2025, a judge set his bail at $200,000, and he was released later that month after posting bond. Less than four months after his release, Upshaw was arrested again, this time for an alleged home invasion robbery in Citrus Heights where cash and a necklace were taken at gunpoint. Authorities said a court-ordered GPS device placed him at the scene of the new crime.
In January 2026, a judge formally revoked Upshaw’s bail in the Oakland murder case. As of March 2026, Upshaw, now 34, was in custody in a Sacramento County jail, facing violent felony charges in two separate cases.
