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ORINDA — At Tuesday’s Orinda City Council meeting, Police Chief David Cook said both patrol units on duty Halloween night were assisting a call in neighboring Lafayette when “several” complaints came in about a large party at 114 Lucille Way in the two hours before gunfire erupted there, killing five.
Orinda officers did not start heading to the Lucille Way house until minutes before the shooting, Cook said, because they had been called to a violent home invasion robbery in Lafayette, where residents had been “held hostage” during an hour-long ordeal. Police said there were three robbers at the home invasion, one armed with a pistol.
“These complaints, while not insignificant, at the time were a lower priority than the Lafayette call that the officers were already on,” Cook said at the beginning of the meeting.
There were “probably three or four calls total,” Cook said, including two noise complaints and a report of a car striking a parked vehicle as it left the party earlier in the evening.
Orinda is “blessed with outstanding officers,” Cook said. Later in the meeting, after an attorney representing a Lucille Way resident demanded to know how many officers were away, Cook said the city had two patrol units and both were in Lafayette. He added that Moraga and Lafayette each typically have two patrol units on duty.
At a candlelight vigil for #Orinda house shooting victims, brother of Tiyon Farley describes how his baby brother was. @EastBayTimes @NateGartrell @jonkawamoto pic.twitter.com/6hM5xOHpQZ
— Ray Chavez (@rayinaction) November 6, 2019
Other speakers at Tuesday night’s Orinda City Council meeting questioned the police timeline, saying that if officers had been able to respond instead of providing mutual aid to Lafayette for the home-invasion robbery, the tragedy could have been avoided.
Cook responded by saying that police had received a call only about a loud party — and not a call that guns were involved — at 114 Lucille Way, the 4,000-square-foot home that was being used as an Airbnb rental.
Other residents called for Orinda to hire more police officers permanently. The city contracts with the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Department for its police services, and Orinda City Manager Steve Salomon said an additional officer would have to be funded by a special tax measure.
Cook’s statement preceded an Orinda council meeting at which the City Council agreed to support an emergency moratorium that would specifically ban unhosted short-term rentals such as the Lucille Way mansion.
Police have mostly been mum on details, though several law enforcement sources say that investigators are exploring the possibility that it is tied to a San Francisco gang known as the Page Street Mob. The gang has existed for decades, and originated in San Francisco’s Western Addition neighborhood. It was the subject of a 2002 racketeering case against seven members and included charges of murder and crack cocaine trafficking.
Before Cook spoke Tuesday, Orinda Mayor Inga Miller read the names of all five victims and held a moment of silence. The victims are: Tiyon Farley, 22, of Antioch; Omar Taylor, 24, of Pittsburg; Ramon Hill Jr., 23, of San Francisco/Oakland; Javin County, 29, of Sausalito/Richmond; and Oshiana Tompkins, 19, of Vallejo/Hercules. A Vallejo man in his early 20s also was severely injured and remains in a coma.
One of the victims, Tiyon Farley, is the half-brother of Lee Farley, 30, who was charged with four counts of murder in a 2015 San Francisco drive-by shooting. The victims in that case were David Saucier, 20; Yalani Chinyamurindi, 19; Harith Atchan, 21; and Manuel O’Neal, 22. The San Francisco shooting occurred on Page Street between Octavia and Laguna streets. Lee Farley was charged in 2016, while serving prison time on an unrelated case.
Questions about Lucille Way home
The day after the Orinda shooting, several Lucille Way residents told reporters that the house was known for wild parties. City officials have said that the property owner, listed as Michael Young Wang, had been given notice for noise and garbage complaints.
Cook said that since March, there have been two complaints about 114 Lucille Way, neither involving loud parties. He said other complaints that didn’t specifically mention the address might not show up when he searched for prior calls. He did not explain why he used March as the starting-off point.
Cook called the shooting an “unfathomable tragedy” and said that several police agencies, as well as the FBI, continue to investigate. The Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office was processing hundreds of pieces of evidence and two dozen investigators were brought in, he said. Authorities have said there were more than 100 people at the party, many of whom fled after shots rang out, and detectives are trying to track them down.
“We are confident that in the end, we will bring a successful resolution to this investigation,” Cook said.
