Man fatally shot by Alameda County sheriff’s deputies had object ‘designed to resemble a firearm,’ agency says

SAN LEANDRO — The unarmed man killed by Alameda County sheriff’s deputies earlier this week had been holding an object that “was designed to resemble a firearm” when he was fatally shot, the agency said Thursday.

No other details about the object were released by the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, whose deputies have come under investigation by the California Department of Justice for their actions during the Monday morning shooting.

The encounter — which was not publicly acknowledged by the sheriff’s office for more than 12 hours afterward — left dead a well-known East Bay musician, 40-year-old Anthony Anderson. His killing, and the delayed response by the sheriff’s office in announcing it, has raised alarm from Anderson’s family as well as local police accountability advocates.

Cat Brooks, co-founder and executive director of the Anti Police-Terror Project, reacted with frustration to the sheriff’s office’s announcement Thursday. She called on the sheriff’s office to promptly share more details about the object that Anderson was purported to be holding, while also making public body-worn camera footage worn by deputies that day.

“If they want the community to believe that, then they should release all of the footage,” Brooks said. “They should release the 911 call.”

Earlier this week, Brooks’ organization demanded greater transparency around the shooting, suggesting in a statement that “Anthony should be alive today.”

“This is what happens when a system built on force responds to mental health crises,” read organization’s statement, which highlighted concerns aired by Anderson’s mother that he had suffered from depression. “When someone calls for help, law enforcement shows up with guns instead of trained, community-based crisis responders. The result, once again, is a life taken and a family devastated.”

The incident began at 3:19 a.m. Monday, when Anderson called sheriff’s dispatchers, asked to talk to law enforcement officers and claimed he wanted to go on a “killing rampage,” the sheriff’s office said Thursday.

After deputies arrived to the 16000 block of Selborne Drive, in the hills above Interstate 580, Anderson came out of a home “and presented an immediate threat to officers” by pointing the object at officers, prompting two deputies to open fire at him, the agency said.

The sheriff’s office has yet to release the names of the two deputies who shot Anderson, nor any other details about their employment at the agency. They were placed on administrative leave, in accordance with sheriff’s policies.

A longtime trumpet player, Anderson was known to host performances and jam sessions on Thursday nights at The Starry Plough, a decades-old Irish pub on Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley. He had a strong reputation in the East Bay’s music scene for decades, having spent much of his childhood in San Francisco and Berkeley and playing in the Berkeley High School jazz band.

A day after the shooting, Anderson’s mother, Kristina Anderson, decried the killing and questioned why deputies shot her son, despite the fact he was unarmed.

“I can’t believe this is the country I am living in,” Kristina Anderson told this news outlet. “Because this is not supposed to happen to anyone.”

Jakob Rodgers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send him an encrypted message via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at jrodgers@bayareanewsgroup.com.