An Oakland woman who was shot and left paralyzed during a 2022 gas station shootout is now headed to prison after striking a plea deal. Twenty-five-year-old Tyja Braswell pleaded no contest in January to an assault with a deadly weapon charge and to a probation violation, wrapping up a tangle of cases that have stretched across multiple counties and courtrooms.
According to The Mercury News, the agreement covers the assault and probation counts and comes with a recommendation of roughly nine years at sentencing. Court filings reviewed by that outlet say prosecutors at points filed, then later dropped, murder and attempted murder charges; that a May 30, 2024 attempted murder case and separate Contra Costa County burglary and conspiracy allegations sit in the larger record; and that deputies accused Braswell of violently resisting medical transport and clashing with staff while in custody, behavior prosecutors cited in urging the judge to impose a prison term.
Gas station shooting that left a bystander dead
The legal saga began with a March 19, 2022, shootout at a gas station on International Boulevard in East Oakland that left 64-year-old Rodney Davis dead and Braswell gravely injured. Surveillance video and police reports described a fast-moving exchange of gunfire. Braswell was hospitalized and ultimately left paralyzed from the waist down. As reported by SFGATE, that incident sparked the initial homicide investigation and the series of criminal cases that followed.
Other killings and investigations
Prosecutors say Braswell’s name later surfaced in a cluster of related episodes that complicated how authorities approached the case. In one separate incident, the April 29, 2023, killing of 21-year-old Marie Villa Bedford, Braswell was in a car and was not physically harmed, while another man has been charged in Bedford’s death, according to earlier coverage. SFist reported on the Bedford killing and the charges that followed in that case…