Berkeley Shooting: Man Sentenced To 22 Years In Prison

OAKLAND, CA — An Alameda man who allegedly was seeking revenge for the fatal shooting of his son four months earlier was sentenced today to 22 years in state prison for a shooting near San Pablo Park in Berkeley in August 2015.

Jamell Tousant, 41, was convicted on March 9 of four counts of assault with a deadly weapon and seven other felony charges for the shooting in the 2800 block of Mabel Street, near Oregon Street, at about 6:40 p.m. on
Aug. 15, 2015.

Alameda County prosecutor Nick Homer admitted in his closing argument in Tousant's trial that there weren't any eyewitnesses who testified that Tousant was one of the two shooters in the slaying.

But Homer said a mountain of circumstantial evidence, such as records from his two cellphones, bullets found at his home in Alameda and a photo that Tousant posted on his Facebook page of him posing with an assault
rifle with a high-capacity drum style magazine, connects Tousant to the shooting.

Homer said he believes that the motive for the Berkeley shooting was that Tousant was seeking revenge for the fatal shooting of his 21-year-old son, who was also named Jamell Tousant, in the 1400 block of 90th
Avenue in Oakland at about 6:15 p.m. on April 25, 2015.

The prosecutor said Tousant believed that the people who killed his son belonged to the Berkeley-based Five Fingers Gang, had done research on the gang on his cellphone and thought that the four people who were shot
at belonged to the gang and were involved in his son's death.

One of those four men was hit in his leg with a bullet and had to be treated at a hospital but none of the four victims cooperated with police, Homer said.

The second shooter has never been arrested or charged, according to Homer.

Defense attorney Ernie Castillo admitted that a car that belonged to Tousant was involved in the shooting but told jurors Tousant should be found not guilty because the prosecution couldn't prove that Tousant was in
the car at the time of the shooting and was one of the shooters.

Authorities said no one has been arrested and charged in connection with the shooting death of Tousant's son.

In addition to four counts of assault with a deadly weapon, Tousant was convicted of two counts of shooting at an inhabited dwelling, shooting at an unoccupied vehicle, carrying a loaded firearm in a vehicle, carrying a loaded firearm in a city and two counts of possession of a firearm by a felon.

However, jurors didn't find that Tousant personally fired a weapon in the Berkeley shooting, which was a victory for Tousant because such a finding would have meant he could have been sentenced to life in prison.

In sentencing Tousant, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Kevin Murphy said the shooting "endangered a number of people in the neighborhood" because bullets flew into houses and cars.

Murphy said, "It's a matter of luck that any of a number of people weren't killed, including the four people who were targeted and people who were in houses and cars."

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— Bay City News; Image via Shutterstock