OAKLAND (BCN) — A suspected gang member pleaded not guilty today to a murder charge stemming from the fatal shooting of a 16-year-old girl outside a liquor store in East Oakland in an incident nearly four years ago in which police said she was an innocent victim.
Darius Esters, 22, who’s also charged with attempted murder for the shooting in the 2700 block of Talbot Avenue at about 11:30 p.m. on Aug. 8, 2012, is scheduled to return to Alameda County Superior Court on June 20 or a pretrial hearing.
According to Oakland police, 16-year-old Tattiaunn Turner was outside a liquor store in the 2700 block of Talbot Avenue with four other people when two suspects opened fire on them at about 11:30 p.m.
Turner and a 23-year-old man, who police said was among the intended targets in the shooting, were both struck by gunfire. The man survived the shooting but Turner was pronounced dead at the scene.
Homicide investigator Phong Tran wrote in a probable cause statement that multiple witnesses identified Ester as one of two gunmen who had targeted the four people who were with Turner in a gang-related shooting.
The other three fled the area and have not been identified.Esters, who’s being held without bail, was arrested on Feb. 20 for an unrelated gun possession case and on March 15 he was charged with murder for Turner’s death.
Turner lived with her family on 99th Avenue in East Oakland and gave birth to a daughter less than a year before she was killed.
Her father, William Turner, who was 29, was fatally shot near the corner of 32nd Street and San Pablo Avenue at about 5:50 a.m. on March 5, 2008.
Turner’s cousin, 15-year-old Hadari Askari, was fatally shot outside a housing complex in the 6700 block of Leona Creek Drive at about 8 p.m. on July 10, 2012, less than a month before Turner was killed.