OAKLAND — Prosecutors here have filed murder charges against another suspect in the killing of Oakland police Officer Tuan Le, this time against a man who police say fled the Bay Area after the fatal shooting.
Marquise Cooper, 34, was charged Friday with one count of murder and two counts of commercial burglary in connection with the Dec. 29 cannabis business break-in and fatal shooting of Le, which occurred a little after 4:30 a.m. on the 400 block of Embarcadero in Oakland. Cooper is now the fourth person to face charges in Le’s death, and the third person to be charged with murder.
Cooper is being held in Santa Rita Jail without bail, and is due in court for an initial appearance Tuesday, records show. He was booked into the jail last week, after being extradited to the Bay Area from Southern California.
Earlier this month, the Alameda County District Attorney filed murder and burglary charges against Mark Demetrious Sanders and Allen Starr Brown, and also charged another man, Sebron Russell, with burglary. Police have alleged that Sanders is the man suspected of firing shots at an undercover police truck containing Le and another plainclothes officer, killing Le.
All four suspects remain jailed. Police also arrested Sanders’ mother on suspicion of accessory, but she was released days later without any charges.
Le and his colleague were fired upon while responding to reports of a cannabis business burglary when Le was shot in the head, authorities said. The four men were identified as suspects through video surveillance, phone records and other digital evidence, according to court records. Police say the same facility had been broken into twice before Le was killed, and that the same group of people are suspected in all three break-ins.
Sanders was arrested in Livermore in early January by U.S. Marshals, who reportedly used Le’s handcuffs to book him. Cooper was arrested days later in Southern California, after apparently eluding a police surveillance detail that spotted him in San Francisco, authorities said.
Sanders, 27, Russell, 30, and Cooper were all on probation at the time for a strikingly similar burglary in Pittsburg. In that case, The three men allegedly burglarized a home that was being used to cultivate marijuana, and police later found a gun in one of their vehicles. They all received 120-day jail sentences and two-year probation terms, set to expire later this year.
It is Sanders’ second murder case in the past decade. In 2014, he was charged as a juvenile with murdering an 18-year-old man during a shootout in Oakland. He later pleaded no contest to manslaughter and was released from prison within five years, authorities said.