OAKLAND — Less than a year after Alameda County agreed to his release from prison in an abrupt turnabout, a local resident has been charged with nine felonies in connection with a recent shooting.
Roland Randall, 44, allegedly accused the victim of bringing police to his “trap spot” — a slang term for a place used for drug sales — before opening fire at the man on the 2300 block of San Pablo Avenue in Oakland. He was arrested at the same location six weeks after the Feb. 10 shooting, on a fugitive warrant, by a squad of police officers conducting surveillance for him, court records show.
The shooting occurred just eight months after Randall, who also goes by Roland Bickman, was granted an early release from prison for killing a man with his brother in 2003. His release was the result of a four-day turnaround, where a deputy district attorney argued Randall was a “major participant” in the killing of Marvin Brooks, then apparently changed his mind and agreed to Randall’s release from prison, court records show.
On June 14, 2024, Deputy District Attorney Robert Graff filed a document in response to Randall’s petition for release from jail. Graff’s filing said Randall acted “with reckless indifference to human life” when he and his brother allegedly shot at Brooks during a marijuana robbery, and that Randall could still be “presently convicted” despite new restrictions to state law that limit when prosecutors can charge a person with murder when someone is killed during the commission of another felony.
Graff drew this conclusion after reviewing the case file and a parole transcript hearing where Randall admitted to firing shots that day, the document says.
But then, on June 18, 2024, Graff changed his tune entirely, writing that, “based on the state of the law and the evidence available today, the People question whether they will succeed in proving beyond a reasonable doubt that (Randall) can be convicted of murder under the law as it now exists.” In court later that day, Graff said there were questions as to whether Randall was “part of the robbery.”
In a 2021 parole hearing, Randall claimed that he had pulled a gun and “shot blindly” after watching his brother pull a weapon during a heated dispute with a marijuana dealer. Randall described the conflict not as a robbery but an argument about how much marijuana they would get for $40. He claimed he wasn’t trying to hit Brooks.
“I’m not a cold blooded killer. I couldn’t look at nobody in the eye and shot shoot nobody cold blood,” he said. Randall also complained he’d been falsely labeled a member of the gang Kumi 415, an offshoot of the Black Guerilla Family that’s based in the Bay Area.
Both Roland Randall and his brother, Michael Randall, were charged with murder. In 2009, they both pleaded no contest to manslaughter, and were both given 21 years. But unlike Roland Randall, there was never any legal relief in Michael’s case. He remains at Salinas Valley State Prison, records show.
After his release, Roland Randall moved back to the Bay Area. Last Feb. 10, he allegedly shot at a Brentwood man in Oakland, resulting in the new case. Authorities say Randall and the victim had dated the same woman, and that the victim was warned that “Roro from East Palo Alto” had been looking for him.
The Brentwood man’s car was struck by gunfire, but he escaped injury. Police say they consulted a law enforcement expert on East Palo Alto gangs, who identified “Roro” as Randall. He was charged on April 1 with two counts of shooting at the man, several felony gun charges, possessing cocaine and a firearm, and a misdemeanor count of having a large capacity magazine, court records show.
Prosecutors have also moved to violate Randall’s parole in the manslaughter case. He is next due in court on April 16 for a preliminary hearing, where a judge will review evidence against him and determine if there’s enough to uphold the charges.
In the meantime, Randall cannot be bailed out of jail.
