Armando R. Gonzalez, 29, of San Leandro, was shot and killed at about 2:53 a.m. on Sunday, May 11, 2008, on the sidewalk in the 1800 block of 89th Avenue in East Oakland. He died at the scene. The Oakland Police Department investigated.
Gonzalez had been at a birthday party for two people at a house on the block, attended by about 30 guests, including several of his relatives. The party had gone on for about five hours without real problems, police said.
But a man at the party, who apparently did not know Gonzalez, had been harassing one of Gonzalez's female relatives. Gonzalez got into a fistfight with the man outside the house and beat him badly, knocking him to the ground.
As Gonzalez and his 20-year-old cousin walked away from the house, the man went to the back of the residence and got a gun. According to Sgt. George Phillips, he walked up to Gonzalez and the cousin and began shooting without warning, then ran off on foot. Gonzalez and his cousin were each hit several times. The cousin, a woman from San Leandro who was not the one being harassed, was critically wounded but survived.
Police were still trying to identify and find the gunman later that day. Police and Crime Stoppers of Oakland offered a reward of up to $15,000 for information leading to his arrest. Because the man had been a guest at the party for hours before the shooting, many of the roughly 30 people there would have seen him and may know who he is or who brought him.
Little about Gonzalez's life was reported beyond his age and his home in San Leandro, the city just south of Oakland. He died on Mother's Day morning, defending a relative at a family celebration.
The 1800 block of 89th Avenue is a residential street in East Oakland, a short distance from International Boulevard. A party of that size, at that hour, would have drawn attention from neighbors as well as guests.
Oakland was one of the most violent large cities in California in those years. The city recorded 148 homicides in 2006 and more than 100 in most years through 2013, and its police department solved far fewer of them than the statewide average. In 2010 and 2011, Oakland police cleared only about 30 percent of the city's homicides.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Armando R. Gonzalez could be found in news archives or public records. More than 18 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. The Washington Post's homicide database, which tracked killings in Oakland from 2008 through 2017, lists the case as open with no arrest. Anyone who attended the birthday party on 89th Avenue, or who knows the man who argued with Gonzalez that night, may hold the key to this case. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a car seen leaving the area or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call the Oakland Police Department Homicide Section at (510) 238-3821 or the homicide tip line at (510) 238-7950, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers of Oakland at (510) 777-8572.
