Features

Child murder 

On Tuesday the Alameda County District Attorney charged a 21-year-old Berkeley man with murdering his 5-month-old son.  

On the afternoon of May 15, Berkeley police received a report of a choking infant in a home on the 1300 block of Ward Street. Officers responding assisted the boy’s father with CPR: the infant was transported to Children’s Hospital by Berkeley Fire Paramedics, where he died of his injuries.  

The father, Lamar Franklin, was arrested on May15 based upon information provided to officers by hospital staff. Franklin is charged with murder, assault with a deadly weapon, and assault resulting in the death of a child under eight. 

The incident was Berkeley’s fourth homicide of the year. 

Sexual assault 

A 42-year-old El Sobrante man was arrested at his home on May 13 and charged with sexually assaulting a woman in Berkeley last month. 

According to Berkeley police, on April 4 Jerry Brown Jr. picked up a 27-year-old woman on San Pablo and Carri- 

son Street, an area of southwest Berkeley often frequented by prostitutes. Police alleged that while driving around in his 1996 Ford Ranger, Brown flashed a badge, claimed he was an undercover Berkeley police officer, and implied he had a gun under the driver’s seat. 

They said that Brown stopped the truck on the 700 block of Heinz Street and sexually assaulted the woman multiple times.  

A resident provided police with a license plate number which matched that on Brown’s Ford Ranger.  

Brown was charged with false imprisonment, oral copulation and sodomy. He has been released on bond.