19-Year-Old Woman Charged With Murder In Oakland
OAKLAND (BCN) -- A woman has been charged with murder for the fatal shooting of another woman while they were riding together in a car in East Oakland last month, prosecutors said.
Diamond Cooper, 19, was charged on Friday in connection with the death of 62-year-old Schevette Butts and is scheduled to return to court on Tuesday morning to be assigned an attorney and possibly enter a plea.
Oakland police Officer Jose Barocio wrote in a probable cause statement that Butts was in the front passenger seat and Cooper was in the rear seat of a white Honda Accord that was being driven by 19-year-old Tonea Thomas on Sept. 12.
Barocio said Thomas passed a loaded semi-automatic pistol to Cooper, who he said "began manipulating the firearm and shot a round toward Butts' front seat" and struck Butts in her buttocks area.
Barocio wrote that Thomas and Cooper drove Butts to Highland Hospital in Oakland, where they gave officers false information and then left on foot.
Officers who searched the Honda Accord found the semi-automatic pistol, a shell casing and slug, Barocio said.
Butts died at Highland Hospital on Oct. 2, according to Barocio.
Multiple witnesses identified Cooper as the woman who was in the rear seat of the Honda Accord who shot Butts, Barocio wrote.
Last Thursday, Cooper was arrested at her home in San Jose and Thomas was arrested in Oakland, according to police.
Thomas is charged with being an accessory after the fact and Cooper and Thomas are both charged with carrying a loaded firearm in a city.
Barocio wrote that after Thomas was arrested she admitted to having a loaded firearm in a public place inside a vehicle.
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