OAKLAND — A 15-year-old boy has been arrested and charged with murdering a father of six one day after Christmas, in front of the victim’s son, stemming from an earlier robbery of a scooter, authorities said.
Police have identified the suspect as Neal Cox, a boy who lived in the same neighborhood as 48-year-old Ponciano “Chano” Tule Bernal, the man he allegedly killed. The shooting occurred around 4:10 p.m. on Dec. 26, near 11th Avenue and Foothill Boulevard, authorities said.
Cox has also been charged with robbery for allegedly stealing a scooter from Tule Bernal’s 14-year-old son, who witnessed the homicide. Police say that Tule Bernal and his son went out looking for the scooter after three teens robbed the 14-year-old, and bumped into Cox riding on it in their neighborhood.
In a GoFundMe page, Tule Bernal described what happened next, stating that, “during the confrontation, I tried telling my dad to leave it alone.”
“They had already taken my scooter, but the guys took it as a threat when my dad confronted them. We walked away and left it as it was, but they started following us and pointed a gun at us,” the fundraiser page says. “My dad was shot in his heart and didn’t survive. I saw my dad fall to the ground in front of our house…he died in seconds.”
Authorities are still looking for the two other teens suspected to have joined the robbery.
Cox has been charged as juvenile, drastically limiting his potential prison exposure under state law, authorities said. If convicted he faces a period of incarceration up to his 25th birthday. He was arrested last week and remains in custody at juvenile hall.
This is at least the second time in the past year prosecutors have charged a teen with killing someone in Oakland. Last year, two boys aged 13 and 12 allegedly robbed a West Oakland store clerk at gunpoint, and the 13-year-old is accused of then fatally shooting the clerk.
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