Nearly six months after a beloved teacher, Marvin Boomer, was killed in a collision following a highway patrol chase, The Oaklandside has learned his family will file suit next week against multiple agencies for their role in the tragedy.
Michelle Bernard, a civil rights lawyer based in Washington, D.C., said she will submit two separate wrongful death claims on behalf of Boomer’s family and Boomer’s partner on Tuesday or Wednesday next week. One suit will name the City of Oakland and the Oakland Police Department, and the other will name the California Highway Patrol and the State of California. California law requires that a wrongful death claim be filed within six months of an incident, or November 28, in this case.
Boomer, 39, was widely respected during his time at Castlemont High School, where he led the career program. He was killed on May 28 while he was walking with his partner, Ta Ta Neshe Woodruff, who goes by Nina. That evening, the couple was strolling on a sidewalk on E. 21st Street, near Boomer’s home in the San Antonio neighborhood, when an 18-year-old Oakland high school student named Eric Hernandez Garcia lost control of his car and careened into a fire hydrant. The teacher pushed Woodruff aside as the hydrant headed their way, and it killed him instantly…