OAKLAND — The man killed in a recent shooting where three other people were struck by gunfire has been identified as a 38-year-old father of two who worked at a recycling company in Berkeley.
Antwon Benson, who went by “Rico,” was fatally shot on Aug. 22 on the 7900 block of Ney Avenue in East Oakland. Police say he was standing with a group of others when at least one shooter opened fire at the group, possibly from a moving vehicle.
Two other people were injured by gunfire but obtained transportation to a hospital on their own. A fourth man was also struck by bullet fragments, which lodged in his leather jacket and prevented injury, police said.
Benson was remembered at a memorial service earlier this month, where his father ended a eulogy saying, “Rest in peace, son. I’ll see you when I get there.”
“This is the second child I’ve lost in Oakland, California. And I’ve got to ask myself, ‘When is it going to stop?’” Benson’s father said at the memorial. “It’s just a tragedy that he lost his life senselessly … Oakland needs some cleaning up, it needs some prayer, it needs some resolution.”
Benson had worked at the Berkeley Recycling Center for more than a decade, an online memorial posted by the company says. The union he was a part of is organizing a GoFundMe for his wife and children that has thus far raised more than $8,000 for them. The memorial says he was visiting friends when he was killed.
“The entire staff and crew of Community Conservation Centers is in shock, and will miss him dearly,” the online memorial says. “Rico was a very special person whose life ended way too early.”
Police have not announced any arrests or identified a suspect, nor have they said who in the group the shooter was aiming at.
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