William Alberto Wilkins was a 29-year-old detective with the Oakland Police Department who died on January 12, 2001. He had served seven years with the department and was working in plainclothes on an undercover narcotics stakeout when he pursued a stolen car and apprehended a suspect at gunpoint in front of 9021 B Street in Oakland. Responding uniformed officers arriving on scene did not recognize him as a fellow officer and opened fire, fatally wounding him. He later died at a local hospital.

The two uniformed officers who fired had each been on the force less than a year; the shooting was described as the department’s first friendly fire death of an Oakland officer. The officers were reported to be deeply traumatized and the department carried out an internal review into how the misidentification occurred. Wilkins’s family later pursued legal action and the city agreed to a $3.5 million settlement for his wife and young son.

Are there readers who remember the neighborhood or the department’s practices at that time and can share information that might clarify what happened that night?