Jose Amaya-Ramos was standing at a chicken stand on the 3400 block of Foothill Boulevard on May 12, 2022, waiting for his food, when four robbers descended on the small East Oakland business. By the time they fled, they had taken a total of $110 from workers at the stand — and Amaya-Ramos, a 22-year-old customer who had done nothing but wait for a meal, was dead.
According to The Mercury News, police say the robbers believed a large amount of cash was hidden at the stand. Instead, they got $60 from one worker and $50 from another. Amaya-Ramos resisted the robbers, and police say 31-year-old Devon Askew, now identified by investigators as the shooter, killed him as the group fled the scene. Surveillance footage examined after the shooting, as reported by CBS News, showed Amaya-Ramos was shot in the head as a friend picked up a lug nut wrench to resist the four robbers, prompting a gunman to fire blindly behind him while running away.
The food stand had been targeted before. Its owner told CBS News off-camera in 2022 that his business and workers had been robbed and shot at multiple times earlier that year, before the fatal holdup that killed Amaya-Ramos. In the aftermath, the Oakland Police Department and Crime Stoppers of Oakland offered a reward of up to $17,500 for information leading to the identification and arrest of the suspects, according to the same CBS News report.
A Cold Case Cracked by an Anonymous Tip
Askew was not arrested until last October, when he was taken into custody in Sacramento, according to court records cited by the Mercury News. He now faces murder and robbery charges and has pleaded not guilty. He remains held on a no-bail hold as he awaits a preliminary hearing…