Rodney C. Blackman, 54, was found shot to death at about 1:20 a.m. on Sunday, July 26, 2009, in the 1000 block of 70th Avenue in East Oakland, not far from the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. The Oakland Police Department investigated.
According to police, it appeared that Blackman ran a short distance after he was shot and then collapsed at the spot where officers found him. No one else was reported hurt. Police did not establish a motive.
They noted that the area where he was killed had some drug trafficking and said they could not rule out that the killing was drug-related, but they did not say that Blackman was involved in drugs.
Blackman was a familiar face in the neighborhood. Relatives and residents told police he was known as a hardworking handyman they called "Carwash," who washed cars, cleaned yards and did other odd jobs to make money. He did not have a permanent address, but he had relatives living in the area. A death notice for Rodney C. Blackman ran in the Bay Area News Group papers that week.
Police and Crime Stoppers of Oakland offered a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to his killer's arrest. No suspect description was ever released, and no further reporting on the case could be found.
The 1000 block of 70th Avenue sits in the East Oakland flatlands between International Boulevard and the Coliseum complex and Interstate 880. A man who washed cars and cleaned yards for his neighbors would have been known to many people on the surrounding blocks, some of whom may have seen him in the hours before he was shot.
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 Rodney Blackman could be found in news archives or public records. More than 17 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 knew "Carwash" and saw him late that Saturday night, or who heard the shots on 70th Avenue, may be able to help. 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.
