OAKLAND — A 34-year-old Oakland man has been charged with murder in a deadly shooting near the Northgate Retirement Center, barely a month after an Alameda County judge warned him not to take up arms because he was suspected of having participated in a previous one Shooting involved shooting outside the building.
According to court documents, Amadi Monroe is charged with killing Jerald Larnell Clark II just after 9 p.m. on August 8 at the 500 block of 25th Street in Oakland, near the retirement home in Oakland's Koreatown Northgate area.
Monroe was arrested three days after the murder at a relative's home in the center and has been charged with murder and possession of a firearm by a felon and numerous increased sentences, court documents show. One of these reinforcements claims he fired the fatal shot from a vehicle.
He remained held without bail in the Santa Rita jail on Wednesday.
The murder came just weeks after Alameda County Superior Court Judge Thomas Nixon warned Monroe to avoid guns and the retirement center in reducing his bail, after he was allegedly involved in a separate shooting there five months earlier .
Court documents show that on March 27, Oakland police suspect Monroe fired at least two shots at a vehicle fleeing the seniors' center before entering the building and boarding an elevator. He was arrested in Yolo County two months later.
Nixon ruled in early July that prosecutors had enough evidence to bring the case to trial. In doing so, he agreed to lower Nixon's bail from $300,000 to $200,000 after Monroe's attorney requested a bail reduction to $40,000.
“I really shouldn't be doing that,” Nixon said at the July 3 hearing. He noted that “your story is far from the best,” but considered the two charges Monroe faced: shooting at an occupied motor vehicle and possession of a firearm by a criminal. Still, Nixon said, “I'll do it anyway, because I think you've already served a significant amount of time in prison.”
His verdict came with a severe admonition.
“I can't stress this enough: You can't have a gun, period,” Nixon said, according to a transcript of the preliminary hearing. “If you are caught with any other weapon, you will be seriously prosecuted. I won't entertain anything that wouldn't involve that again. Got it?” He also told him to stay 100 meters from the center.
Court records show Monroe's bail was posted on July 20.
Shortly before the Aug. 8 murder, Clark told his wife he was going outside to meet someone named “Bang,” court documents show.
Authorities later found out that “Bang” was a nickname for Monroe, leading to his arrest. During an interview with investigators, Monroe confessed to the murder, an Oakland police investigator wrote in court filings.
The murder was the 66th death the Oakland Police Department investigated as a homicide in 2023. It came amid a violent seven-hour period that also killed two other people in the city.
