A masked gunman dressed in black clothes approached Bailey, editor-in-chief of the Oakland Post and four other weeklies, on a street in downtown Oakland, Calif., as the journalist was on his way to work about 7:30 a.m. The assailant shot Bailey multiple times at close range before fleeing on foot, Oakland police spokesman Roland Holmgren told CPJ. Bailey was pronounced dead at the scene.
Devaughndre Broussard, a handyman and occasional cook at Your Black Muslim Bakery, reportedly confessed to local authorities the next day. According to local press reports, Broussard said he was angered by Bailey’s coverage of the bakery and its staff; his attorney later maintained the purported confession was made under duress.
Your Black Muslim Bakery was a one-time hub of Oakland community activism whose surviving owners and staff had been tied to various criminal activities-including charges filed after the murder that involved the alleged kidnapping and torture of two women in May 2007.
Bailey, 58, a veteran television and print journalist in California’s Bay Area, covered a variety of issues including city politics, crime, and African-American issues. He had been named editor-in-chief in June 2007.
In 2009, Broussard told an Alameda County grand jury that he
committed the killing at the behest of Yusuf Bey IV, leader of Your Black
Muslim Bakery, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The grand jury indicted Bey
on charges that he ordered Bailey killed, and Antoine Mackey, on charges of
acting as an accomplice.
As part of plea bargain, Broussard was sentenced to 25 years
in exchange for giving testimony against his fellow conspirators. He testified
that Bey ordered the killing to prevent the editor from publishing a story about
the bakery’s financial connections. Mackey, he said, drove the getaway car. In
June 2011, a jury in Oakland found Bey and
Mackey guilty of first-degree degree murder. The two were sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.