A mother-of-eight was brutally murdered in crime-ridden Oakland after confronting teenage drug dealers who had allegedly just sold her kids marijuana.
Maria Ramos, 33, was visiting her mother, Blanca Velasco, with her eight children on August 7 when known drug dealers approached two of her children and reportedly sold them marijuana pipes.
Ramos and Velasco then decided to follow the blue Toyota sedan to tell them to stop coming to her house, according to KTVU.
Surveillance footage obtained by the TV station shows the suspects stop at an intersection, with one opening the driver’s side door.
Ramos and Velaso, in a gray SUV, then stop right next to the vehicle. Ramos, who had struggled with substance abuse in the past, got out of the passenger side when tragedy struck.
Maria Ramos, 33, was shot dead after confronting alleged drug dealers in Oakland, California on August 7
The teenagers inside the vehicle began shooting at her, with one passenger getting out of the car and firing more shots as Ramos ran away.
After a few moments, Velasco could also be seen driving the SUV away from the scene.
She recounted how she thought her daughter was just taking cover.
‘I just saw her taking off and I just heard the bang,’ Velasco told NBC Bay Area.
‘And then I pressed on the gas to put my car in front of their car to shield my daughter,’ she said. ‘I saw my daughter going down, but I thought my daughter was taking cover.’
She told the San Francisco Chronicle she then peered into the back seat of the Toyota – where she saw a teenage boy half leaning out the window pointing a gun toward her.
In a panic, Velasco said she sped off with the Toyota trailing her, before eventually losing it in traffic.
She then doubled back to get Ramos, and at first didn’t see her – until she noticed her daughter lying on the street in a puddle of blood.
Surveillance footage shows Ramos and her mother pulling up next to the suspected drug dealers’ Toyota sedan
The suspects immediately opened fire, and Ramos tried to flee
‘I left my car there, I ran to her. I was holding her in my arms,’ Velasco said.
‘I just saw all the blood coming out and I started rubbing her and I told her, “Breathe. We still need you. You have eight kids that still need you.”
‘She just started breathing from her nose and was going slowly, and that’s when police showed up.’
Oakland police say cops arrived at around 2.30pm and found Ramos suffering from at least one gunshot wound.
They attempted life-saving measures, but Ramos was pronounced dead at the scene.
Officers then worked to identify the suspects’ vehicle and were able to bring three suspects – two minors and 19-year-old Isaiah Gomez – into custody.
Officers found Ramos suffering from at least one gunshot wound, and she was pronounced dead at the scene
They now believe Ramos was shot by a 16 year old, who is being held at Alameda County Juvenile Hall, but police are also investigating whether Ramos may have sprayed pepper spray at the suspects before they fired.
Gomez, meanwhile, was detained and questioned by police, but pleaded not guilty during a hearing on Friday, according to the Chronicle.
He has since been released with an ankle monitor.
‘I’m angry cause my daughter’s not coming back home,’ Velasco told KPIX. ‘Why [did] he get to go home?’
She also said she worries that the city’s woke District Attorney Pamela Price will not charge her daughter’s killer as an adult. Price faces a recall election in November over her soft-on-crime policies.
‘If you were big enough to get a gun and kill somebody, you’re big enough to pay the price.’
The victim’s mother, Blanca Velasco, is now pleading for justice
She said she is now struggling to tell her youngest grandchildren what happened
Velasco is now left caring for her grandchildren, and said she is struggling to tell the youngest ones what happened.
She said the 15, 13 and 11 year olds ‘know that mom is gone’.
Velasco said: ‘The other five, I haven’t had the courage to tell them.’ She said her five-year-old granddaughter is still waiting for her mom to come home.
‘She says, “I her mommy is dead, but she’s still coming back from the hospital, right grandma?”‘ Velasco shared.
‘I would be like, “Yeah,” because I don’t know how to tell her she’s not coming back.’
Still, she says her daughter prepared her for the challenge, giving her tips on how to save money on groceries and back-to-school items before they planned to move to Merced, California together.
‘I feel like she was preparing me for this,’ Velasco told the Chronicle.
‘She was showing me how to take care of so many kids [because] she knew I would be keeping them.’
Velasco said she now plans to move the family out of Oakland to keep her grandchildren safe.
A memorial has been set up for Ramos at the spot where she was killed
The city is facing what one Democratic consultant has called ‘the perfect storm times three’ – citing a rampant crime wave and political turmoil.
‘For the city, I can’t think of a tougher time,’ Jim Ross told The Washington Post.
In recent months, Oakland has seen a mass shooting at a Juneteenth celebration at Lake Merritt and an elderly woman getting attacked and robbed in broad daylight.
Just last month, 100 robbers also tore a gas station apart and picked the shelves clean, their conduct not generating a timely police response.
Days after that incident, the Oakland Police Department admitted it only has 35 officers on patrol at any given moment for a city with over 400,000 people.
Bob Bishop Jackson, the senior pastor at a gospel church in Oakland, explained that the city is wracked with lawlessness more than ever before and ‘divine intervention’ is needed.
‘I think we need, from top to bottom, a brand-new slate of leaders for the city,’ Jackson said. ‘We need a brand-new city council, a brand-new mayor, brand-new, brand-new, brand-new.’
Oakland’s rage is being aimed directly at Mayor Sheng Thao, who is presiding over a crime-ridden city as she also deals with personal scandals involving her romantic partner
Amid the turmoil, Democrat Mayor Sheng Thao’s home was raided by the FBI on June 20, with agents confiscating devices belonging to her and her partner Andre Jones in connection with an alleged money laundering scheme. She has pleaded innocent of any wrongdoing.
She is now facing a recall effort just two years after taking office.
Retired Judge Brenda Harbin-Forte, who is leading the recall effort against Thao, told local media that she had ‘blood on her hands,’ while also criticizing her policies that she says are driving businesses out of Oakland faster than ever before.
But in a desperate effort to keep her seat, Thao has argued that crime is down when compared to 2023’s early-year crime wave, though keen observers have noted that her office’s report compared the fully compiled year-end 2023 statistics with the ongoing count for 2024.
The Oakland Police Officers Association have since said it had voted unanimously to demand Thao’s resignation, stating they will back recall efforts if she fails to step aside.
A smash-and-grab robbery was seen at this gas station convenience store in Oakland. Some 100 people came in and picked the shelves clean, and police never showed up
Oakland also has a homeless crisis, with scenes of despair like this becoming more and more commonplace in the troubled metro
The organization, led by President Huy Nguyen, warned the city has become a laughing stock.
‘We’re a joke and not just in the state but in the country and world. We need to change the state of the city,’ Sgt. Nguyen told a press conference, Mercury News reports.
They cited rampant crime, understaffing among police and a murky financial future for the city as reasons for their lack of confidence.
The recent FBI raid of Thao’s home has only further harmed Thao’s credibility, Nguyen added.
The union warned that the police department needs around 500 more officers than it currently has to operate effectively.
‘The leadership in this city continues to fail again and again and the citizens continue to suffer,’ Nguyen said.
California governor Gavin Newsom has announced that the state’s national guard prosecutors will be taking over Alameda County cases
The announcement is a major blow to Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price
Meanwhile, California Gov Gavin Newsom announced that the state’s national guard prosecutors will be taking over Alameda County cases – in a blow to District Attorney Price.
The Democrat said national guard’s Counterdrug Task Force has finalized an agreement with California Department of Justice that is ‘modeled after a successful partnership established in San Francisco with District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, which has helped boost felony narcotics convictions in San Francisco.’
Newsom added: ‘I am grateful for the quick work here by the Attorney General and the California National Guard to swiftly finalize this agreement so these talented attorneys can soon help secure justice for the people of the Bay Area.’
He had earlier rescinded an offer to send prosecutors to Oakland to crack down on rising crime in the Bay Area city.
At the time, Newson said that Price’s office did not benefit from the offer because it missed the deadline to apply – which Price denied.
Now Price says she welcomes the state prosecutors.
Price added: ‘We hope the swift agreement reached between the DOJ and CalGuard yields equally swift results, and my office is willing to assist in that effort in any way possible.