Oakland Police Department Interim Chief Darren Allison gives an update on the arrest of two suspects in the homicide case of Officer Tuan Le at the Oakland Police Headquarters in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2023. The suspects are Mark Sanders, 27, of Tracy, and Allen Brown, 28, of Chico. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
OAKLAND — A Stockton man charged Wednesday with murder in the killing of Officer Tuan Le has a prior manslaughter conviction in connection with a 2014 shootout that killed an 18-year-old man, according to court documents and multiple law enforcement sources.
Mark Demetrious Sanders, 27, is facing several other counts on top of the murder charge, including special allegations of second-degree murder of a peace officer in a drive-by shooting, officials said Wednesday evening. Police earlier identified Sanders as the man who allegedly opened fire into an unmarked police truck containing Le, who was on an undercover detail monitoring a Dec. 29 early morning burglary at a cannabis business.
Also charged with murder was 28-year-old Chico resident Allen Starr Brown, who authorities said was riding in a vehicle with Sanders, possibly as the driver, when Le was shot.
“I want to express how proud I am to the members of the Oakland Police Department,” interim police Chief Darrin Allison said at a Wednesday evening news conference. “This is a testament to their courage, professionalism and commitment.”
“They have leapt into action – swift action – to ensure that those who are responsible are held accountable for this disgusting murder,” added Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao.
Other court documents show it’s not Sanders’ first time being arrested on suspicion of homicide — or of burglarizing a cannabis facility. In April 2014, when Sanders was 17, the U.S. Marshals arrested him in Modesto in connection with the killing of 18-year-old Marcellus Perry.
Perry was killed during a February 2014 shootout in East Oakland near Bancroft and 77th avenues involving multiple gunmen. In 2015, Sanders pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter in juvenile court, was sentenced to more than 10 years but released within five, according to law enforcement sources.
Authorities allege that at around 4:30 a.m. on Dec. 29, Sanders, along with Brown, 30-year-old Sebron Russell and others, burglarized a cannabis business on the 400 block of Embarcadero. Le, who had responded to a break-in at the same location hours earlier, was in an unmarked police vehicle that was leaving the facility’s parking lot when one of the burglars opened fire, striking Le in the head.
Russell was arrested Jan. 1 on suspicion of second-degree burglary and Brown was booked Sunday on suspicion of murder and numerous other felonies. Sanders, who in recent years has had addresses in Vallejo, Oakland and Stockton, was arrested Tuesday in Livermore. Police say they placed Le’s handcuffs on him during the booking process.
All three men were held Wednesday evening at the Santa Rita Jail without bail while awaiting a court hearing Thursday morning, where they were expected to be arraigned on the charges.
In announcing the charges, Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price said she personally assured Le’s family on Wednesday that her office would do “everything within the confines of our legal power” to ensure the killer would spend the rest of his life in prison.
She said more charges were likely against the men, and that people were expected to be charged in the “outrageous” killing.
“Unfortunately, too often in our community and country, we see this happen and we have go do better,” Price said. “We join law enforcement and people across this country, across the nation and across the world in expressing our heartbreak and our outrage over this horrific crime.”
In 2021, Russell, Sanders and a 34-year-old man were arrested and charged in Contra Costa County with burglarizing a Pittsburg home, where marijuana was being cultivated. They pleaded no contest to burglary in 2022, and each received a six-month jail term and two years probation, court records show.
The probation term was still active when Le was killed. Russell was also charged in 2019 for his part in a robbery of a cannabis facility on 23rd Avenue in Oakland.
Le — who worked on a burglary suppression unit — was on plainclothes detail on Dec. 29 in response to reported break-ins at local dispensaries. He and other plainclothes officers observed the 4:30 a.m. break-in from an unmarked pickup truck. They put the vehicle in reverse shortly before at least one of the burglars opened fire at them. Le later died at Highland Hospital surrounded by family and fellow Oakland officers.
He was the 54th Oakland police officer killed in the line of duty over the department’s 160-year history, and the first in 14 years.
