Six more teenage boys have been arrested in connection to the murder of Ichinkhorloo Bayarsaikhan, the 15-year-old Alameda High School student shot and killed Halloween night in Washington Park.

Alameda Police have identified the suspected shooter among the group, but they will recommend that all of the teens be charged with homicide and attempted robbery.

“Everyone responsible for the tragedy has been taken into custody,” Lt. Art Fuentes, spokesperson for the Alameda Police Department

The six teens, ranging in age from 13 to 16, were taken into custody after police served search warrants in five locations in Oakland and one location in Alameda. Fuentes said two of the boys are brothers and police are looking into possible gang ties. Fuentes said more weapons have been found in the latest searches, though he said it is unsure whether one of them is the murder weapon.

The three 16-year-olds arrested earlier this week will not be charged, Fuentes said. Two appeared in juvenile court yesterday while the third has been released.

Iko was in Washington Park Halloween night with friends when a group of six boys approached them attempting to rob the group. About six shots were fired, and Iko was hit in the back with a bullet. She was later pronounced dead at Highland Hospital in Oakland.

Fuentes said Iko’s family have been notified of the arrests.

“The family is doing as best as we can hope for, we’ve been in close contact with them,” he said.

Fuentes said the public has been extremely helpful in the case, leading police to valuable information. He said that the three boys taken into custody on Tuesday were associated with the group of six suspects, who were arrested at their homes and at school yesterday and today, but were not directly involved with the attempted murder and homicide. Fuentes maintained there are no connections between the suspects and Iko and her friends.

Lt. Art Fuentes announces arrests made in the Halloween shooting that occured last week in Washington Park.

Alameda Police arrested three 16-year-old boys Nov. 6 in connection to the murder of 15-year-old Ichinkhorloo Bayarsaikhan.

Police are still looking for two more suspects connected with the shooting. Lt. Art Fuentes, spokesperson for the Alameda Police Department, said the community has been extremely helpful in the case. They are not releasing the names of those arrested because they are juveniles.

“The two suspects, we believe, are in the area,” Fuentes said. “If you have any information or if you are involved, please come forward, we will identify you.”

The arrests came after multiple arrest and search warrants were served in Oakland. From those searches, police recovered weapons and ammunition that they believe is connected to the shooting, according Fuentes.

The three arrested yesterday are expected to be charged with homicide, Fuentes said, although he would not confirm if the shooter was among those arrested yesterday.

The murder, the first this year for Alameda, has shocked the mostly quiet community.

“This case has touched this police department, this city and the city government,” Fuentes said. “Many of us are parents ourselves.”

Bayarsaikhan, a student from Alameda High School, was with friends in Washington Park during Halloween night when five teens approached them attempting to take their
valuables. Bayarsaikhan was shot with a single bullet in the back and was later pronounced dead at Highland Hospital in Oakland.

Students and staff are mobilizing to help the family of the 15-year-old Alameda High School student shot and killed Halloween night.

According to Donna Fletcher, spokesperson for the Alameda Unified School District, students at Alameda High are planning to hold a memorial for their classmate, although the details have yet to be released.

Fletcher said the school is in touch with the family of Ichinkhorloo Bayarsaikhan, known to those closest to her as Iko. Students and staff are trying to determine the best way to honor her, Fletcher said.

“There are lots of ideas and lots of desire, not just students but throughout the district,” Fletcher said.

One idea that students have already decided on is to dedicate a page in the yearbook to Bayarsaikhan, Fletcher said.

There are also talks of creating a fund to assist the family.

“It’s a very difficult situation,” Fletcher said.

Meanwhile, the Alameda Police Department is continuing to look for suspects in the shooting.

The police released a sketch of one of the suspects. They are looking for five to six male juveniles, wearing dark clothing, slender in build and ranging from 5 feet 5 inches to 5 feet 8 inches.

Those with information can call the Alameda Police Department at (510) 337 – 8381.

ALAMEDA — Paul Richard Martinetti stood on the front patio of his bungalow-style house with a glass of water in one hand, a cigarette in another. He took long drags while looking out on Garfield Avenue, a quiet street with well-maintained lawns where a mailman makes his rounds.

Dressed in a worn gray sweater, his white hair covered by a black baseball cap, the 73-year-old Alameda man does not have much to say about his arrest Oct. 4 after police found 233 marijuana plants in his home.

“I’ve been told that the less I talk about it, the better I’m off,” said Martinetti, who is originally from New York.

Martinetti and Suzanne Roberts, 68, his partner of more than 15 years, are facing felony charges for allegedly cultivating marijuana plants at the back of their home on Garfield. They are also charged with possession of marijuana for sale.

The couple told police that they turned to growing marijuana because of financial troubles and to save their home from foreclosure. Now the elderly couple with no criminal history are each facing a maximum of three years and eight months in prison if found guilty.

With the charges, the plan to keep their home has fallen apart, and the couple must move out of the house they have lived in seven years in the next few months.

Their next court appearance is Nov. 27. When asked how he was doing recently, Martinetti said, “In two words? F—– up.”

According to official reports, the police found the couple’s marijuana crop Aug. 30, when they received a tip from an anonymous neighbor who, reported that marijuana was being cultivated at the home.

Police officers entered Roberts and Martinetti’s property through an open driveway gate on the side of the house and followed two black and gold signs with arrows that read “office” to a building containing the marijuana plants.

Officers reported seeing and smelling the marijuana even before entering the detached building, described as the garage. The structure was divided into four separate rooms, all used for cultivating marijuana plants at different stages of growth, the police report said.

Martinetti said he started cultivating marijuana in March but had built the backyard garage and set up the lighting last fall, according to the statements the couple gave to police. He decided to grow the plants because Roberts, who owned the house on Garfield Avenue, was having a difficulty paying her mortgage, according to his statements.

Both are retired, according to police reports. Omar Figueroa, attorney for Roberts, said his client was a former small business management consultant. Martinetti said that he is a former auto mechanic and cabinetmaker. He has been assigned a public defender.

Figueroa, an attorney who specializes in defending people charged on cannabis cases, said the couple’s circumstance illustrates how the criminalization of marijuana, except for medicinal purposes, can have dire results.

“It takes otherwise law-abiding, tax-paying citizens and turns them into criminals, brings fear of being put into a steel cage, and it’s just not a rational way to deal with it,” Figueroa said.

Martinetti told police in a statement that he bought books that showed him how to grow marijuana. He sold one crop, according to his statement.

In total, approximately three pounds of packaged marijuana was found in the couple’s home, along with a .22 caliber handgun and $9,774 in cash, police reports stated.

Police reports described the marijuana grow as sophisticated, with lights strategically placed above the plants at various stages of development. The lights were also placed on rails and moved in a continuous motion to simulate moving sunlight.

The police did not arrest the couple when the marijuana was discovered because of their age, and they did not pose a flight risk, said to Lt. Art Fuentes, spokesperson for the Alameda Police Department.

Although Figueroa said he could not comment on the specifics of the case, he said that his client has a clean record and is good and outstanding citizen. He also said his client had bought the house in Alameda in order to take care of her aging mother until she died from colon cancer at age 92. Because of Roberts does not have a criminal history, Figueroa said it is unlikely that she will actually go to prison.

Theresa Elander, who lives next door to Martinetti and Roberts, described them as fabulous neighbors. Elander declined to talk about the couple’s legal troubles but would only speak on their character.

“They look out for me and are very helpful,” she said.

A 15-year-old Alameda High School student was shot Oct. 31 after an attempted robbery incident at Washington Park.

The teen later died from a gunshot wound after being transferred to Highland General Hospital. Meanwhile, the police continue to look for the suspects, described as five to six male juveniles.

The shooting occurred last night at 10:12 p.m. in Washington Park and police found the victim in the playground area of the park, according to a police press statement.

“We’re working to determine who is responsible,” said Lt. Art Fuentes, spokesperson for the police department.
Investigators are also working with BART and AC Transit officials after it was determined that public transit was one way the suspects could have gotten out of the city, Fuentes said.

Meanwhile, students and school officials are still reeling over the news of the shooting. Michael Janvier, principal of Alameda High School, said an announcement was made earlier in the day and students held a moment of silence.

“The mood here is somber,” Janvier said, “The campus is quiet, reflective.”

The student who was shot has been with the school district for four years and she was a junior at Alameda High, Janvier said. An immigrant from Mongolia and English language learner, the teen was a strong student and maintained a 3.3. grade point average, Janvier said. She was also taking courses in Spanish, choir, chemistry and calculus, he said.

“This is the first experience of this type of incident in my time here,” Janvier said, who has been a principal at the school of four years.

Extra counselors were available at school today for students affected by the recent death. Students and parents alike said they were stunned by the news of the shooting.

“I was shocked, I don’t think this usually happens here in Alameda,” said Kaila Chan, a sophomore at the school.

The murder is the first this year for the city of Alameda. Last year, there were two homicides in the city, Fuentes said.

Two weeks ago, Alameda residents met with representatives from the office of Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata to discuss the consolidation of Bay Area ferry services.

Michael Krueger, member of the Transportation Commission, asked why the consolidation exempted Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District, the largest ferry operator in the region. Kruegger said if the idea of consolidation is emergency preparedness, why is the largest operator being left out of the equation.

Perata representatives were unable to answer that question at that time.

John Grubb, spokesperson of the Bay Area Council, a business group that pushed for consolidation, said the state does not have the authority to bring the transit company into the plan because it is a private operator.

Grubb said there were talks with the transit company about possibly joining the consolidation.

“But at this time they wanted to continue to operate themselves,” Grubb said.

Grubb also said that the transit company agreed to cede control of ferry boats to the new authority in an event of an emergency.

Consultants said that while there are a number of constraints when it comes to redeveloping Alameda Point, especially because of contaminants in the area, it is all manageable and will be completed in time.

“Please don’t take it all as a negative,” said Pat Kehliher, vice president of operations at SunCal Companies, during a public meeting on Oct. 24.

The meeting is part of a series of workshops that the Irvine-based company will host in the coming months as it embarks on the controversial project affecting one third of Alameda

Consultants gave presentations to an audience that filled Mastick Senior Center Wednesday night. They spoke of traffic, development models and the environmental and geo-technical constraints in the area.

“There’s still a lot of work to be done,,” said Peng Leong, a consultant with Innovative and Creative Environmental Solutions who spoke about the various contaminants in the project site.

But Leong also added that the site where the first phase of the project will take place has been cleaned up and is ready to go.

The next workshop, which will focus on land use and transportation, will be held Nov. 18.

Residents had different reasons for coming to the meeting. Maureen Cadigan, who moved Alameda in July, said she came to the meeting because she is hoping to retire in the island city.

“I’m looking at making this place my home so I’m interested in the future of the town,” Cadigan said.

The Alameda Unified School District is proposing to change its kindergarten enrollment policy to a two-week period round up and lottery from a first come, first served rule.

Dave Dierkin, district student affairs and compliance officer, presented the plan on Oct. 23 to the school board, who will then vote on the policy at its next meeting.

The new policy aims to make kindergarten enrollment procedures fair and equitable, Dierking said.

Last year, parents lined up all night at Edison Elementary School to sign up their kids through the first come, first serve policy. Many criticized the process as unfair, saying that some parents might not have the time or resources to camp out all night and ensure a spot for their children.

Since August, the school board has been considering the idea of a random drawing process. But there was immediate outcry from parents who do not like the idea of their children possibly being diverted to another school aside from the one in their neighborhoods.

The district held a series of public meetings this month for community input on enrollment policies. Some parents remain resistant to the lottery idea, saying that many of them came to the city for their neighborhood schools. Many suggested an advanced registration process where parents can sign up their children years before they are of school age.

“A lottery creates so much uncertainty, increases anxiety, makes it very difficult for people to plan,” said Whitney Gabriel, a parent from Edison School Neighborhood Network, a group advocating for advanced registration.

The policy that the district is proposing would include a two-week initial enrollment period in the beginning of the year. If there are more students than spaces available, children with siblings at the school will be given priority to sign up.

The remaining students would be assigned numbers through a random drawing and will be enrolled according to their numbers. The policy would take effect for the 2008-2009 school year.

Though enrollments in the school district have declined over the years, mainly because of the closing of the Naval Air Station, there is a bubble of kindergarten-aged children entering the system and causing some schools to fill to capacity. At the beginning of the school year, there were approximately 50 more kindergarteners than previously projected.

And some say the problem will only worsen over the years. School board members are also currently looking into ways to solve capacity issues and deal with the imbalance of enrollments in schools.

Robert Antonio Romero of Oakland was sentenced to 31 years and eight months to state prison for using a firearm during a carjacking.

Family members and friends shook their heads as Alameda County Superior Court Judge Joan Cartwright handed down the maximum sentence of 20 years for using a firearm in a carjacking.

Romero, 29, also received additional years in prison for previous felony convictions and for being an ex-felon with a gun.

Cartwright took into account Romero’s has a long history of auto theft, robbery and drug problems. Romero was previously convicted and served time in state prison for second-degree burglary of a vehicle and felony auto theft.

“Every time we’ve seen him it’s been with some type of taking something from someone else, running away, taking cars,” Cartwright said. “It’s way past time for him to take responsibility for what he did.”

District Attorney Georgia Santos said the judge was just following the law because the 20 years is an automatic sentence for discharging a weapon during a carjacking.

“I’m really not surprised,” Santos said.

Last March, Romero, aka “Bobos,” pointed a .38 caliber semi automatic gun at James Henderson, of Newark, while he was seated in a car on the 700th block of 45th Avenue

Henderson, 36, at the time of the incident, owed Romero two speakers in exchange of a laptop, according to the police report. When Henderson refused to get out of his car, Romero shot him on the shin.

A police report stated that Romero then pointed his gun at Henderson’s head and threatened that he would kill him if he did not get out. When Henderson finally opened the door, Romero, along with two other suspects punched and kicked him.

Maribel Bautista, the mother of Romero’s daughter, was visibly upset after the sentence was handed down. Bautista claimed that Romero had insisted on his innocence. She also said there was not enough evidence to convict him and that the entire trial was rushed.

“I personally, I think the laws are messed up,” said Bautista outside the courtroom, her eyes welling up with tears.

Brian Hong, the public defender assigned to Romero, said that he will file an appeal on behalf of Romero, who has 60 days to file.

“I didn’t think it was fair,” Hong said.