Tracking device puts bakery leader’s car at Chauncey Bailey shooting scene, officer testifies

Oakland, Calif. police work at the scene where Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey was shot dead by an unknown assailant at the corner of 14th and Alice streets in Oakland, Calif., Thursday, August 2, 2007. (D. Ross Cameron/The Oakland Tribune)

Oakland, Calif. police work at the scene where Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey was shot dead by an unknown assailant at the corner of 14th and Alice streets in Oakland, Calif., Thursday, August 2, 2007. (D. Ross Cameron/The Oakland Tribune)

By Thomas Peele, The Chauncey Bailey Project

OAKLAND — Former Your Black Muslim Bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV’s car drove past the scene of journalist Chauncey Bailey’s shooting death in August 2007 about 45 minutes after it occurred, according to data from a tracking device hidden on his car, a police officer testified Monday morning.

Data showed Bey IV’s Dodge Charger turned onto Alice Street from 14th Street in downtown Oakland at 8:09 a.m. on Aug. 2, 2007, the officer who hid the device told jurors. Bailey was shot dead at the same intersection at 7:24 that morning.

Bailey’s confessed killer, Devaughndre Broussard, has testified that he, Bey IV and bakery member Antoine Mackey were in the car because Bey IV wanted to see where Bailey died after bragging the killing “would be big.”

Broussard contends that Bey IV ordered Oakland Post editor Bailey killed to stop him from writing about the bakery in the newspaper, and that Mackey helped him hunt down the journalist that morning and was his getaway driver.

Bey IV and Mackey have pleaded not guilty to murder charges in the deaths of Bailey and two other men. Their defense lawyers have contended that Broussard is a liar who committed the killings on his own and is framing the defendants to avoid life in prison after making a plea deal with prosecutors.

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Officer Eric Huesman, a former member of the Oakland Police Department who is now an officer in Brentwood, told jurors that he hid the device on Bey IV’s car in late June 2007. Bey IV was being investigated at the time in the kidnapping of two women and torturing of one of them a month earlier.

Huesman said the device failed twice because of dead batteries in July. But it was working in early August when Bailey was killed.

It showed Bey IV’s car outside Bailey’s apartment building near Lake Merritt the night before the murder where Broussard claimed the trio discussed how to set up the killing.

It also showed the car stopping at Lake Merritt, as Broussard described, after driving by 14th and Alice streets, then, eventually stopping at the Emeryville Marina, where Broussard said the men got out and walked along a pier where they again talked about the murder.

Testimony is scheduled to resume Monday afternoon with a former bakery member, Kahlil Raheem, taking the witness stand.

Reach investigative reporter Thomas Peele at tpeele@bayareanewsgroup.com. Follow him at twitter.com/thomas_peele.

Chauncey Bailey Project reports are also being featured at:
–Center for Investigative Reporting
–Maynard Institute
–New America Media
–San Francisco Bay Guardian