On June 8, 2022, the jury found Defendant Kairee Ward guilty of three felony second-degree robberies, and found true the personal use of a firearm and two arming clauses. He was also convicted of misdemeanor carrying a concealed firearm.
On October 11, 2020 around 12:30 p.m., a victim was walking on Masterson Street in Oakland when he was approached by two men who he recognized from social media and local music videos posted on YouTube.
Defendant Ward was one of those two men armed with a silver assault
rifle that was partially concealed and partially exposed. When Ward approached the victim, he demanded the victim’s personal property. A second suspect, not charged in this case, removed the victim’s property. Both suspects fled by car.
Ward was also charged in a Contra Costa County case that occurred in Walnut Creek the same day, October 11, 2022 at around 2:20 p.m.. Two women, a mother that was 82 years old and her daughter, were approached by two men when they were out on a walk. Defendant West, who took a plea deal, exited out of the driver’s seat of a BMW car, carrying a rifle. Defendant Ward exited from the passenger’s seat. West, with the rifle, told the 82-year-old woman to give him her purse. She told him no. West then struck her with the end of the rifle on her right side of her face once or twice. She then complied giving her purse, as did her daughter. The two men then then went back to their car and fled.
An investigation by Oakland and Walnut Creek Police agencies linked the incidents to Ward and West.
West plead to one count of robbery and admitted the special allegation of a principal being armed with an assault weapon. He is expected to receive four years in prison. Defendant Ward is expected to be sentenced on July 15.
DDA Lori Mullins prosecuted the case, with assistance from Inspector Serge Babka and Victim-Witness Advocate Dena Aindow.