9 suspects indicted for Oakland marijuana burglaries in 2023 that led to Officer Tuan Le’s death
By Carlos E. Castañeda
A federal grand jury indicted nine people on multiple charges in connection with armed burglaries at an Oakland marijuana grow facility that led to the death of police Officer Tuan Le, authorities said Thursday.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California said in a press release on Thursday that Janiero Booth (also known as Javon Herrington), Allen Brown, Marquise Cooper, Jowaun Jones, Shawn McGee, Salvador Munguia, and Sebron Russell face charges of conspiring to distribute, possessing with intent to distribute, and attempting to possess with intent to distribute more than 100 marijuana plants.
Brown and Russell were also charged with discharging and brandishing a firearm, respectively, in connection with a drug trafficking crime. Two other defendants, Jasmine Kumar and Felicia Sanders, were charged with being accessories after the fact, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. All the defendants were arrested on Wednesday or were already in custody, and made their initial appearances in federal district court in San Francisco on Thursday, the office said.
Brown and another suspect, Mark Demetrious Sanders, have also been charged by Alameda County prosecutors with Le’s murder. Le, who was working undercover, was shot while inside his vehicle after responding to one of multiple burglaries at a cannabis business on Embarcadero near Fifth Ave. on Dec. 29, 2023. Le later died at a hospital.
According to the indictment filed on November 20 and unsealed on Thursday, there were three armed burglaries of the facility overnight and early that morning on Dec. 29. Police responded to the third burglary, and suspects fled in multiple vehicles. During the chase, Demetrious Sanders was a passenger in a vehicle driven by Brown, according to prosecutors. The indictment unsealed Thursday said “an unnamed co-conspirator,” who Alameda County prosecutors identify as Demetrious Sanders, fired more than 20 shots at one of the police vehicles, killing Le.
Kumar, Sanders’s girlfriend, and his mother, Felicia Sanders, allegedly tried to help him avoid being apprehended by police, including by furnishing him with a one-way plane ticket, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Cooper was also initially charged by Alameda County prosecutors with Le’s murder, but the DA’s Office dropped those charges in August.
The nine defendants indicted in November are alleged to have stolen more than 100 marijuana plants. Some of the defendants were scheduled to appear on Monday for bail proceedings, the office said.
