OAKLAND
Man killed in attempt at robbery
Pizza shop owner fires on assailant
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Catarino Piedra, 41, kept a gun underneath the counter at the Coliseum Pizza and Taqueria that he owned in East Oakland because his drivers had been robbed many times while making deliveries.
Allen Joseph Hicks III, 22, was an accused batterer on probation for a drug conviction and an aspiring rap artist whom everybody in his neighborhood knew as "Boonie."
The lives of the two men intersected tragically at about 9:30 p.m. Thursday when Hicks, armed with a pistol and joined by two other men, tried to rob Piedra inside the popular pizzeria at 89th Avenue and International Boulevard. Fearful that the assailants might hurt him, his wife and three children -- all of whom were inside the restaurant -- Piedra pulled out his 9mm semiautomatic pistol and opened fire, killing Hicks, police said.
In the chaos, Piedra may have accidentally shot and wounded his 17-year-old son, who was not seriously injured, police said.
Piedra acted in self-defense and won't be charged with a crime, Alameda County Assistant District Tom Rogers said Friday.
"I was scared," Piedra told The Chronicle in an interview Friday. "I had to defend my family. I was in fear for me and my kids."
He added that he took no satisfaction in taking Hicks' life.
"I wish this never happened," Piedra said. "I don't want anybody, any business to be in this kind of situation, with anybody putting a gun in your face."
Piedra said he has owned Coliseum Pizza for 18 years. The pizzeria used to be on 98th Avenue until it moved to International Boulevard in 2005.
The drama began at 9:37 p.m. when three men walked into the pizzeria. Hicks was armed with a pistol and walked up to Piedra, pointed the weapon at him and said, "This is a robbery," according to police and Piedra.
Piedra said his 17-year-old son, 19-month-old son and 13-year-old daughter were inside the restaurant at the time.
Piedra said he was afraid that the assailants would shoot him or hurt his family, a contention supported by Oakland police who nevertheless cautioned against citizens taking direct action against criminals.
"There is definitely a balance," said Officer Roland Holmgren, department spokesman. "This thing had potential -- who knows where the suspects were going to take the situation? But by no stretch of the imagination are we agreeing with or justifying what the owner did."
Holmgren said, "We're not saying that we want citizens to go out there and arm themselves and take the law into their own hands. We want citizens to be good witnesses, to be good report-takers and to identify suspects."
The shooting has left two families traumatized, Holmgren said. "There are no winners in this whole case," he said.
Mohammed Ali, the manager of a market on the busy thoroughfare that has seen its share of robberies, had mixed feelings about business owners arming themselves. "Of course they have a right to protect themselves, but from what? If we have law enforcement, should (businesses) have guns? I don't think so. They're inviting trouble."
Hicks was remembered at a growing makeshift memorial Friday near the corner of 90th Avenue and Olive Street in East Oakland. Friends left balloons, candles and bottles of Hennessy cognac on the street and wrote messages on white boards tied to a fence.
"Hard-headed ass, Boonie," one message read. "The world's gone miss u boy."
"He always had a smile on his face," said a 22-year-old man who identified himself as a rapper named Little Al. "He was a solid dude, loyal."
He didn't express any anger at the pizzeria owner for shooting his friend. "Life happens," he said. "I'm not upset, you feel me? You wouldn't want it to happen, but it happened. Ain't no telling why that shooting occurred."
Hicks had pleaded no contest to marijuana possession after police reported finding him counting 19 bags of marijuana on 90th Avenue in June 2004, court records show. He spent two months in jail and was placed on three years' probation. Police then arrested him on suspicion of possession of marijuana for sale in April 2005, and prosecutors sought to revoke his probation.
"I don't sell weed, I smoke it," Hicks told officers during the second incident, the police report said.
Last month, Alameda County prosecutors charged Hicks with two counts each of battery and making threats and one count of brandishing a gun in November and December against his girlfriend, with whom he had been engaged to be married.
The woman said she ended their three-month relationship after Hicks became physically abusive, Oakland police Officer John Biletnikoff wrote in court records. On Christmas Day, Hicks let himself into her home with a key, got into an argument with her and punched her in the face six times, police said.
"One of the blows was so hard her head hit the wall and it put a hole in the wall," Biletnikoff wrote. After she fell to the ground, Hicks kicked her in the stomach, she told police.
Hicks once called the woman and showed up with a gun in his hand, the woman told police.
The 28-year-old woman, who didn't want her name used, told The Chronicle on Friday that despite the alleged abuse, Hicks was a "good person." Still, she said she very surprised that he was shot and killed in an apparent robbery attempt. "I wouldn't think that he would have done something like that," she said.
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