Winta Mehari, 28, was killed on November 24, 2006, during a Thanksgiving Day shooting at an apartment complex on Telegraph Avenue in Oakland, California. She was one of three family members shot dead that day; her 17-year-old brother Yonas Mehari and their 50-year-old mother Regbe Bahrenegasi were also killed. The victims and the alleged shooters were members of Oakland’s Eritrean immigrant community.

Police say two brothers, Asmeron and Tewodros Gebreselassie, carried out the attack. Tewodros reportedly confirmed the victims were home by phone, let Asmeron into the apartment, and Asmeron opened fire. During the incident Tewodros took Winta’s 2-year-old son to their apartment. Several relatives escaped; one broke a back jumping from the unit and another was shot in the foot while trying to disarm a gunman. The Gebreselassie brothers told investigators they suspected Winta of involvement in the earlier March 2006 death of their sibling Abraham G. Tewolde, a death whose autopsy did not determine a specific cause.

Both brothers were charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping. They were convicted in 2011; Tewodros later appealed, pled no contest in 2016 to three counts of voluntary manslaughter and received a 10-year sentence reported as time already served, resulting in his release. The killings had a profound effect on Oakland’s Eritrean community.