Berkeley's Mean Streets

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CJ Davis, 25, was gunned down in the streets of Berkeley, Calif. on May 16, 2009.

On the evening of May 16, 2009, the sun was shining through a canopy of maple trees at the corner of 10th Street and Allston Way in Berkeley, Calif.

The silence was broken only now and again by a chirping blackbird, a creaky porch swing, and wind chimes rattling in the breeze.

It was a lazy Saturday. Traffic in the neighborhood was light, except for a Berkley P.D. cruiser out on patrol, and Officer Erik Keene had his windows down, keeping his eyes and ears open for trouble.

At 6:35 p.m., the sidewalks seemed empty except for C.J. Davis, 25, who had just strolled out of his grandmother’s house and was heading to the corner market.

According to his family, he would have been too busy texting on his phone to notice four men in their tan Cadillac El Dorado coupe pull up right behind him.

Then, cops say two of the men -- including Rafael Campbell -- stepped out of their vehicle and opened fire on C.J. with their assault rifles.

C.J. tried to flee, but police say he was hit more than a dozen times and died in the street.

When Officer Keene heard the gunshots, he raced to the scene where he discovered C.J.’s body.

Keene said he missed them by a matter of minutes and put a call out on his police radio that there was a “man down” with no signs of the suspects.

The Murder Toll Rises

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Cops say Todd Perea, 26, died when his vehicle was hit by an escape car full of murder suspects.

Upon hearing the radio reports from Officer Keene there was a man down at 10th and Allston, Berkeley Police Officer Susan Lee told AMW she was approaching the scene just as the gunmen were fleeing.

She said they sped past her at a high rate of speed through the residential streets and ensued in a high-speed chase after that Cadillac.

Officer Lee said the suspects blew threw nearly two dozen stop signs and traffic lights. She told AMW she feared it was only a matter of time before someone else was injured or killed.

Within minutes, there were two more police cars trailing Officer Lee by the time her pursuit crossed into Oakland city limits.

She said the suspects accelerated to 60 miles per hour as they approached the high-traffic intersection of Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. and Eileen Street.

The seven-minute police chase ended in tragedy. The suspects ran a red light and hit the car of 26-year-old Todd Perea as he was driving home form his job as a video editor.

He died instantly from injuries sustained during the impact, but the death toll would rise even higher.

The car Perea was driving spun out of control onto the sidewalk, where 41-year old Floyd Ross was walking home from his mother’s apartment.

Floyd didn’t see the car coming and also died instantly.

A Senseless Act of Violence

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Floyd Ross, 41, was killed in the culmination of a car chase through the streets of Berkeley and Oakland, Calif.

To understand what set the violent chain of events into motion that ended with a triple homicide, Berkeley detectives told AMW they turned to the family of C.J. Davis, the first victim, and what may have led the four suspects to open fire on him in the first place.

According to police, the four suspects were members of the N.S.O., or North Side Oakland, gang and on May 16, rolled into Berkeley on a mission to retaliate against another member of C.J.’s family.

They decided to open fire on him instead, fled the scene and ended up killing Todd Perea and Floyd Ross as well.

The Manhunt Is On

Immediately after the crash, Officer Lee and her partners stepped into action and apprehended two of the suspects at the scene.

Just over a week later, authorities in Florida apprehended another suspect near Miami.

Cops say the fourth suspect, 25-year-old Rafael Campbell, was one of the gunmen. He was captured in Sacramento, Calif. on Nov. 17th, 2009.

Fourth Suspect Captured In SF Bay Triple-Murder

When Rafael Campbell allegedly murdered three innocent men last May on the streets of Berkeley and Oakland, Calif., cops say he was on a blind vengeance to carry out his own brand of street justice in the dog-eat-dog world of gang warfare.

Six months later, on November 17th, his life on the run abruptly ended in the jowls of two dogs from a K-9 unit in Sacramento.

According to authorities, they were close to nabbing Campbell on November 9th in Hayward, Calif. but he managed to out run them during a foot chase. A week later, cops say they tracked Campbell down again to a local apartment complex.

Thirty members of a Fugitive Task Force, which included the US Marshals, Department of Corrections and Sacramento Police Dept., were ready for him when they broke down the door to his hideout. Campbell jumped through a screen door and hopped two fences as he fled the scene.

Cops say when Campbell approached a nearby field, they unleashed two German Shepherds from their K-9 unit. The dog chase stretched for 30 yards before they cornered Campbell until authorities were on hand to cuff him. Campbell was treated for injuries at an area hospital before being transported to Berkeley, where formal murder charges are expected to be filed.