OAKLAND — Police said two Oakland police officers had been placed on administrative leave Monday during a newly opened investigation into a fatal weekend vehicle-pedestrian collision in an East Oakland neighborhood.
At a press conference Monday afternoon, Oakland police Chief LeRonne Armstrong shared condolences for the death of Hayward man Lolomanaia Soakai, 28.
Soakai was one of four people standing in the 5400 block of International Boulevard just after 1:50 a.m. Sunday when a Nissan 350Z speeding eastbound along International in a lane designated for buses only struck a car turning onto International from 54th Avenue.
The collision sent the Nissan into several parked vehicles, including some sport-utility vehicles and motorcycles. One of the SUVs struck the foursome, killing Soakai and injuring three men, who were hospitalized and later listed in stable condition.
A GoFundMe fund-raising campaign set up Sunday evening to raise money for Soakai’s mother and brother had raised $850 toward a $1,000 goal as of 5 p.m. Monday. This campaign was online at https://www.gofundme.com/f/love-for-lolo-in-honor-of-lolomanaia-soakai.
Police and firefighters freed 19-year-old Arnold Azael Linaldi, of Oakland, from inside the Nissan, which came to a rest in westbound International lanes, and arrested him on suspicion of multiple charges, including vehicular manslaughter, after medical clearance. Linaldi was later booked into Santa Rita Jail and held on $75,000 bail, and faces arraignment Tuesday morning at Oakland’s Wiley W. Manuel courthouse, according to a county records check.
Police said Sunday that the driver had just left a sideshow in another part of East Oakland, about a mile away, and did not know if alcohol or drugs were factors in what happened.
On Monday, Armstrong said that two Oakland police officers had tried to stop the Nissan, which had been driving at nearly 100 miles per hour, but could not keep up with it and disengaged from the pursuit.
Armstrong said he had placed the officers on administrative leave to investigate possible involvement in the incident. The department’s homicide and internal affairs divisions and the city’s community police review agency were expected to handle the investigation, following department protocol.
“Anytime you have a collision that leads to someone’s death, like we have in this event, and you have some information and evidence that shows that your police cars may have been in the vicinity or have made contact with that vehicle, we want to thoroughly investigate our involvement,” Armstrong said in part, focusing on wanting to “make sure our officers are following policy, following laws and if they were in compliance with department’s expectations” involving multiple factors, including “speed and permission to be involved.”
After making clear that Soakai and his friends were not involved in any sideshow activity, Armstrong said the city’s sideshow-intervention unit had not been active at the incident the Nissan had fled from. Drones donated to the city for use in investigating such incidents had yet to be deployed by investigators, he added.
Armstrong then referenced the recent death of a bicyclist after a vehicle struck him and drove off without stopping, before calling out speed as an all-too-common factor in unsafe driving,
“We need much more traffic enforcement to slow people down. We need to have more presence at sideshows so that we can address some of the speeds that we see in which people are driving at, some of the reckless activity that people are engaged in, to make sure people know that there’s going to be some accountability.
“It’s not just police officers that need to be held accountable, as those that come in and and be involved in this unlawful activity that also need to be held accountable, because we can’t continue to accept this because it’s leading to tragic outcomes for families.”
The case remains under investigation. Anyone with information may call police traffic investigators at 510-777-8570.
Contact George Kelly at 408-859-5180.
