Two Oakland men are now facing federal charges after what prosecutors describe as a chaotic late-night shootout outside a west Oakland liquor store that sits across the street from an elementary school. According to a recently filed complaint, the gunfire erupted in the Bottles & Liquor Market parking lot on Market Street on Jan. 24 at around 11:15 PM. Authorities say no students were on campus at the time, but investigators later recovered multiple shell casings at the scene. The case was transferred to federal court this month, when a criminal complaint was filed last Tuesday, according to court records.
As reported by The Mercury News, the U.S. complaint names 33-year-old Kawan Hardy and 31-year-old Jamonn Blincoe, accusing both men of possessing firearms within 1,000 feet of a school. Prosecutors say each man was already barred from having a gun because of prior felony convictions. According to the filing, the confrontation began with gunfire outside the store, and the defendants allegedly returned fire during the exchange.
Hardy has been through the system on gun allegations before. He was convicted in connection with a separate 2018 shooting and initially received a sentence of nearly 20 years in prison, according to the California Court of Appeal in People v. Hardy. In 2021, appellate judges tossed out his most serious count after ruling that a trial court allowed ShotSpotter evidence without first holding a proper scientific-reliability hearing, which cut down part of his sentence. That history, involving both a prior felony and a high-profile fight over acoustic gun-detection evidence, is poised to loom large as lawyers map out their strategies in the new federal case…