Woman charged with attempted murder after Berkeley shooting
No one was hurt, but police have still been working to close the case.
A woman who forced her way inside a Berkeley woman's apartment in January and repeatedly shot at her has now been charged with attempted murder, police report.
No one was hurt during the shooting, but investigators have still been working to close the case.
On Friday, in response to a Scanner inquiry, Berkeley police said the shooter as well as an accomplice had been arrested this week on suspicion of unrelated identity theft and drug offenses after being stopped thanks to a Flock camera hit.
The shooting took place Jan. 17 at 1:50 a.m. inside the Maudelle Miller Shirek Community housing complex at Adeline Street and Ashby Avenue.
But, according to court papers, the conflict actually began at a party that night in San Francisco when "a fight ensued" between the suspects (two women) and the victims (also two women).
During the fight, police wrote, someone reportedly sprayed "bear mace."
Read more about shootings in Berkeley.
After the party, police say the suspects showed up in Berkeley and forced their way into the victim's apartment.
According to BPD, the victim and her friend left the apartment in response to "threats of a gun" and got a knife from a friend in another unit "to protect herself."
When the victims tried to go back to their apartment, the suspects approached them again in the hallway.
"One of the suspects pointed a handgun at a victim’s head," Berkeley police said previously in a prepared statement. "When the victim pushed the gun away from her face, the suspect backed away from the victim and shot at the victim," missing her but hitting a nearby apartment.
(The apartment was occupied but no one inside was hurt.)
The suspects ran out of the building, police said, but not before "firing the handgun at the victims again" and fleeing in a getaway car they had "strategically staged on Ashby Avenue."
Police quickly identified the alleged shooter as 26-year-old China Omar of Oakland but were unable to find her until this week, when they stopped her at a College Avenue grocery store parking lot after getting a Flock hit in South Berkeley.
On Friday, the Alameda County district attorney's office charged Omar with attempted murder, assault with a semiautomatic firearm, discharge of a firearm with gross negligence and possession of a firearm by a felon.
The new charges include allegations that she committed the crimes while out of custody in a different active case, which appears to relate to commercial burglary and grand theft charges from 2023.
According to court papers, Omar also racked up at least nine felony convictions from 2020 to 2022 for burglary, grand theft and organized retail theft.
In a statement this week, BPD said investigators had also connected her to a North Face burglary "where 160 articles of clothing were stolen."
On Friday, Omar was also charged with carjacking from a recent incident in Oakland, according to court papers and police.
No details about that matter were immediately available.
The other suspect from the January shooting was identified by police as 23-year-old Taurieanah Johnson of Vista, California, in San Diego County.
Johnson was already charged, earlier this month, with burglary and two misdemeanors, carrying a loaded firearm in public and brandishing a firearm, in connection with the January shooting.
She was later released from jail. (The circumstances of her release were not immediately available.)
According to police, Johnson was also in the car with Omar during this week's arrest in Berkeley.
Inside the car, police said they found "personal identification and credit cards for over a dozen victims as well as Norco pills and Xanax bars."
To date, charges from that car stop do not appear to have been filed, according to records online.
Johnson was, however, charged Thursday with grand theft and commercial burglary in connection with an incident from November.
She is no longer in custody.
Omar, the alleged shooter, remains in custody with a hearing set for Monday, according to court papers.
"We appreciate the community’s patience and ongoing support as detectives worked diligently to bring this case to a resolution," BPD said Friday.
