Raid on Muslim group may have found murder weapon

AP:

Police are testing guns recovered from raids in which authorities arrested seven members of an Oakland Black Muslim splinter group who investigators suspect were involved in the killing of a journalist and two others.

Police Lt. Ersie Joyner said one of the guns found during the raids is thought to be the weapon that a masked attacker used Thursday morning to slay Chauncey Bailey, a journalist who was walking to work.

Bailey, 57, was the editor of the Oakland Post, and had been working on a story about Your Black Muslim Bakery before he was ambushed and slain, his colleagues said.

Standing in a black suit with a bow tie, a member of the bakery organization said Friday that the crimes that police described run against the principles of his group.

"This is not a reflection of Dr. Yusuf Bey," said Shamir Yusuf Bey in a sidewalk news conference in front of the bakery. The organization's members all take the founder's surname. "We are all sons of Dr. Yusuf Bey. He has taught us morals, he has taught us how to be advocates in our community."

Joyner said he believes those responsible for Bailey's death were among the seven people arrested Friday. Police say they still do not have a motive for the killing, and that they did not know Bailey was working on a story about the bakery.

Before dawn Friday, officers raided the Muslim group's headquarters at the original bakery, as well as three houses in Oakland that are tied to the group. Among those arrested was the son of the group's founder, Yusuf Bey IV, who was booked on charges including homicide, robbery and assault.

"The search warrant yielded several weapons and other evidence of value including evidence linking the murder of Chauncey Bailey to members of the Your Black Muslim Bakery," said Assistant Police Chief Howard Jordan. He said the raids were part of a yearlong investigation into a variety of violent crimes, including two homicides earlier this year and a kidnapping and torture case.

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The use of "muscle" by gangs to murder those they consider a threat is usually counter productive because it causes greater focus by the police than anything the editor would have written. Don't these hoods watch The Wire. I have been watching the DVDs from the first three seasons and find it an interesting depiction of police trying to work in a somewhat dysfunctional atmosphere in Baltimore. It has its raunchy and seamy moments, but they do not distract from a pretty taunt drama. BTW, murders usually wind up leading to actions by the police that disrupt the organized drug rings.

This report says the editor was working on an article that would have criminally linked the bakery to unspecified offenses. The police serving the warrants said they were connected to "serious violent felonies including murder, robbery and kidnapping."