Deaddrain Chapman was 16 years old when he was killed in Oakland on Saturday, October 30, 2010. The Oakland Police Department investigated his death, and the Washington Post's homicide database, which tracked killings in Oakland from 2008 through 2017, lists it as a homicide that remained open with no arrest.
Very little about his death has been made public.
No detailed news account of the killing could be found for this story, and the public record does not say how he was killed, where exactly it happened, what time of day it was, whether anyone else was hurt or whether police ever identified a suspect. The location recorded in the Post's database places his death in East Oakland.
His name was remembered at the end of that year. On New Year's Eve 2010, St. Columba Catholic Church in Oakland held a ceremony for the 92 people killed in the city in 2010, whose names had been marked by crosses on the church lawn throughout the year. As the crosses were removed, Chapman was among the victims named. His aunt, Latosha Fairley, spoke there. "It is time for everybody come together as one. It's got to start somewhere," she said.
At the same ceremony, Oakland's assistant police chief, Howard Jordan, blamed "too many guns, and too many people using guns to resolve their differences." Those gathered called for getting guns off the streets.
A 16-year-old would have been a student, with classmates, teachers, coaches and neighbors who knew him and may have known who he spent time with in the fall of 2010. Some of those people may have heard what happened to him in the days and weeks that followed.
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. Killings of teenagers in the city drew community vigils, but many of them were never solved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Deaddrain Chapman could be found in news archives or public records. More than 15 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew Deaddrain Chapman, went to school with him or saw him on the last weekend of October 2010 may be able to help his family. 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.
