KEY POINTS:
Seven people were slain at the weekend in Oakland, mostly young, black and male victims of the city's drug wars, but it is the footpath killing of a prominent community journalist by a member of a Black Muslim splinter group that has drawn the most attention.
Chauncey Bailey, 57, editor-in-chief of the Oakland Post, a local black newspaper, was shot by a masked man only three blocks from his office in downtown Oakland.
Devaughndre Broussard, 19, an employee of Your Black Muslim Bakery, confessed to investigators that he had killed Bailey, saying he was angered by the journalist's articles, according to Oakland police spokesman Roland Holmgren.
Bailey had been investigating the bankruptcy of Your Black Muslim Bakery and efforts to convince city officials to grant the organisation a bailout loan, said Joseph Debro, a local businessman and long-time columnist for the Oakland Post.
Broussard was detained, with six others tied to the bakery, in a pre-dawn raid by more than 200 police on Friday. Among those held is Yusef Bey IV, 21, current owner of the bakery and son of the late local spiritual leader Yusef Bey snr.
The shotgun believed used to kill Bailey, a veteran Oakland Tribune and Detroit Free Press journalist, was found in the raids.
Your Black Muslim Bakery is a self-help group for impoverished blacks and ex-prisoners, founded 40 years ago by Yusef Bey snr and influenced by Black Muslim thinking.
The killing has shocked civic leaders who for decades have battled the scourge of street violence among younger residents but were unprepared for the brazen slaying of one of their own.
"People are devastated," Debro said. "Nobody can figure out any rhyme or reason for that killing or the many other killings that take place.
"The lack of regard for life is incomprehensible," he said. "They tend to be young. There doesn't have to be much reason."
Oakland has recorded 79 slayings so far this year, more than the combined homicide rates of nearby San Francisco and San Jose, each of which has a larger population.
Many of those killed are men in their 20s, victims of relentless black-on-black violence that has dragged on for decades in the inner city's drug wars, and accelerated in the past two years, FBI statistics show.
Oakland has one of the nation's highest murder tolls for a city of its size.
"The crime and violence on Oakland streets present me with the most painful and difficult challenge I've ever faced," new Mayor Ronald Dellums, a former US congressman, said following Bailey's death.
Bey snr had become a successful businessman, with a succession of natural-food pie bakeries, a security service, a school and other businesses, before his death in 2003.
While his followers wear the characteristic black suit and bow ties of the broader Black Muslim movement, Bey had no links to the Chicago-based Nation of Islam now led by Louis Farrakhan.
Bey's beliefs shared trappings of traditional Islam but was considered heretical by adherents of the global faith.
Bey was respected as a community leader trying to bring peace to the violent streets of Oakland before he was arrested in 2002 on 27 counts of felony rape of four girls under age 14.
He died of cancer in 2003 before the case could come to trial.
Bey's mini-business empire has gone into a downward spiral and Your Black Muslim Bakery sought bankruptcy protection last year.
Yusef Bey IV was arrested in 2005 on charges of vandalism and civil rights violations for taking part in attacks on two groceries owned by Yemeni immigrants and smashing liquor sold there.
He was jailed on Friday for allegedly trying to run down guards at a nightclub with his car.
- Reuters
