Crime & Safety

Alameda Woman Describes Encounter with Oakland Shooting Suspect

A local resident crossed paths with the Oikos University shooting suspect in the Safeway store at South Shore minutes before he was taken into custody

Bay City News–An Alameda woman who crossed paths with a suspect in a mass killing at Oakland's Oikos University Monday morning said she saw him in an Alameda Safeway store wearing a blank stare shortly before his arrest.

The suspect, identified by Oakland police this evening as 43-year-old One L. Goh, was arrested at the Safeway at 2227 South Shore Center at about 11:15 a.m., roughly 45 minutes after the shooting.

Lisa Resler, 41, who lives nearby, said she had stopped at the Safeway to pick up some fruit for her 4-year-old daughter when she noticed a man wearing a beanie looking in her direction.

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"He looked directly at me," she said, describing his gaze as a deer-in-the-headlights look.

She didn't think much of it, and grabbed a mango, an orange and three apples from the produce section, then paid for the fruit and headed back to her car.

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When she exited the store, she saw that some officers had stopped the man, who had his head down. They were telling him, "move your legs apart," she said.

"I thought he got caught stealing," Resler said. "I said 'Boy, he's having a bad day.'"

She said that soon, a helicopter appeared overhead and she heard the news of the shooting in Oakland. She later returned to the Safeway to buy some stamps and saw that police had placed "caution" tape around a Honda Accord in the parking lot.

Monday night, she said she can't believe that the man she encountered at the grocery store could be responsible for killing seven people at Oikos University this morning.

"It's really hard to wrap your head around," Resler said. "It's really hard to understand why. I'm trying to make some sense of it."

She said she feels lucky not to have been hurt, and saddened for the victims of the shooting.

"I was there with my 4-year-old daughter," Resler said. "He could have still been armed. Obviously he didn't care about human life."

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