CA - Seth Smith, 19, fatally shot at close range, Berkeley, Aug 2020 *arrest*

[Mojito]

Seems like he was a good kid. So sad.

Cal student shot and killed, family searches for answers

Seth Smith, who was about to start his third year at Cal in August, was shot to death at close range at about 10:30 p.m. on Dwight Way near Valley Street, said Officer Byron White, a Berkeley police spokesman. Smith apparently told a roommate he was going out for a walk.

'Everybody's friend': UC Berkeley student Seth Smith dies at 19

“It’s always ironic when you have a drama student who has zero drama,” said Smith’s former theater teacher Christina Chun Moslen, discussing Smith’s kindness and warmth. “He was everybody’s friend.”

This sentiment was echoed by Smith’s friends, who described him as someone who never said an unkind word. Smith’s former classmate Jasmine Wang said Smith was so beloved by their eighth grade geometry classmates that they made T-shirts with Smith’s face on them and wore them to PE every Friday for what they named “Seth Day.”

The front of the shirts read “It’s Seth Day! Let’s Grapevine!” a dance move Smith was known for. The back of the shirts listed the six steps to “Sethvana”: “walk like Seth, talk like Seth, dance like Seth, argue like Seth, do good math” and finally, “become the Seth.”

Many middle and high school classmates attributed the tightknit nature of their class to Seth.

 

[Tman2004]

Probably a hate crime/gang initiation or this dude was involved in bad stuff and had a secret life.

 

[katydid23]

Probably a hate crime/gang initiation or this dude was involved in bad stuff and had a secret life.

I don't get the feeling he was involved in bad stuff.
I went to UC Berkeley and have a lot of family there. It is a tense place, especially lately.

I have a feeling it may have been a hate crime.

 

[cb73]

60-year old Tony Lorenzo Walker was arrested for the murder. Very few details so far.

'Damn It You've Got To Care': Community Reacts To Arrest In Seth Smith's Murder

 

[MajorHoople]

60-year old Tony Lorenzo Walker was arrested for the murder. Very few details so far.

'Damn It You've Got To Care': Community Reacts To Arrest In Seth Smith's Murder

Here's a bit more:

"Alameda County District Attorney’s Office charged Tony Lorenzo Walker, 60, for the murder of the 19-year-old student."

"It wasn’t until last week on Aug. 20 that police got a warrant for Walker’s arrest, according to court documents. Details of how investigators were led to Walker have not yet been made public.

Besides murder, Walker is also charged with other felonies, including possession of a firearm by a felon, carrying a loaded firearm on one’s person in a city and possession of ammunition by a prohibited person.

According to court documents Walker has at least 11 prior convictions, including several second-degree robberies, burglaries and a commercial burglary ranging from the 1970s to 1990s, an armed robbery in 1992, assault with a deadly weapon in 2001 and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person in 2016 — all in Alameda County. He was on felony probation at the time of his arrest last week."

Berkeley: Cal student's alleged killer charged

 

[MajorHoople]

Tony Lorenzo Walker has a long criminal record that spans decades. Here's some of it:

"Police arrested Walker at that time on suspicion of trying to break into a neighbor’s place at Dwight and Acton. BPD said Walker tried to force his way inside the woman’s home, then barricaded himself in his own apartment when she discovered him and scared him off. Walker refused to open his door when police came to investigate, BPD said at the time, but he eventually surrendered without incident. The case was ultimately dismissed as part of a plea for a different case, but no information about that other incident was available online through Alameda County Superior Court records.

Walker was on felony probation at the time of the 2019 break-in attempt, according to police and records reviewed by Berkeleyside.

Walker was placed on probation after a felony gun arrest on Sacramento Street in South Berkeley in 2016, which Berkeleyside also reported. In that case, Walker was charged with possession of a firearm by a felon, according to court records. He was sentenced to a few months in jail and five years of felony probation.

Walker’s Alameda County criminal court records online go back to 1982, when he was charged with assault with a semiautomatic weapon and battery, both felonies, after an incident in August of that year. He was held to answer during a preliminary hearing, but the final outcome of that case was not posted among records available online.

The same year, Walker was charged with assault with a semiautomatic firearm and other violations related to an incident in October. That case was dismissed as part of a plea deal, according to online records."

Berkeley police make arrest in fatal shooting of Cal student

There's more in the article.