An Oakland grandmother says her former son-in-law was killed in an armed confrontation over her stolen property and might be alive if Oakland police officers responded to more than a dozen calls the family made as they tracked their pilfered devices across the city.
“I think people need to know what really happened,” said Teryra Hutchinson, who told NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit she wanted to set the record straight after seeing misleading headlines and police statements about what happened to her son-in-law, Charles Calloway.
According to court records that stemmed from the shooting, Calloway, 39, was killed in March during a home invasion robbery of an occupied East Oakland home. Calloway and his cousin, David Washington, “forcefully entered the rear door of the residence with the intent to commit a residential robbery” before the men “exchanged gunfire” with a resident, according to the Oakland Police Department’s description of the shooting.
Calloway was killed in the shootout.
Hutchinson, however, said law enforcement’s account is misleading and that Calloway died confronting the people he believed had stolen the grandmother’s rental car more than two hours earlier when she got out to open a gate at a friend’s house. Her purse, tax documents and Apple devices were inside the vehicle, Hutchinson said.
A neighbor across the street who witnessed the theft made the first call to police shortly before 8 p.m., according to dispatch records obtained by NBC Bay Area through a California Public Records Act request.
“Someone just stole the lady’s car here right in front of my house,” the neighbor reported to dispatchers in a call logged by Oakland police at 7:53 p.m.
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The dispatcher told Hutchinson officers were on the way, according to the records.
“We have officers en route to you, OK?” the dispatcher told her.
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Next, Hutchinson said she called her daughter Mercedes, Calloway’s former partner. Mercedes had been planning to meet Calloway so he could pick up their kids that night but diverted after the theft so she could bring her mom an iPad that she could use as a temporary phone.
“The kids kind of start playing on the iPad and they’re like, ‘Hey, Grandma, we see your items moving,’” Mercedes said.
Hutchinson and her daughter continued to call police as they tracked the stolen devices across town, including to one location where they told dispatchers they could see the stolen rental car. In all, Hutchinson and Mercedes said they made at least a dozen calls to Oakland police.
Dispatchers continued to say officers would be on the way, according to the police records, and warned Hutchinson and Mercedes not to confront the thieves or get too close to their stolen vehicle.
“Each time they said police will come,” Hutchinson said. “Except for those last few times, they actually disconnected the call on us and the operator told me, ‘Ma’am, if you want to have an update on when the police are coming, you need to call non-emergency.’”
Hutchinson and Mercedes aren’t the only ones waiting a long time for police to show up. Last year, the monthly average response time for “Priority Two” calls, such as stolen car reports, rose above more than six-and-a-half hours, according to an Oakland Police Department report. That’s up from about two-and-a-half hours back in 2019.
As the clock rolled past 10 p.m., more than two hours after she first called 911, Hutchinson said police still hadn’t shown up.
“To say that help is on the way and it isn’t, how do you do that?” Mercedes said, noting they probably would have just gone home had police told them nobody was coming. “That’s just wrong.”
By that time, at least one of their devices was pinging near a home on 102nd Avenue and International Boulevard. That’s where Calloway and his cousin, David Washington, got involved. Hutchinson and Mercedes said Calloway told them he was going to try to get their stolen belongings back himself before he left with the kids.
Hutchinson said she didn’t see exactly what happened next, but she heard a gunshot.
According to a person inside the home on 102nd Avenue who spoke to NBC Bay Area, Calloway and Washington confronted a woman in her car nearby who had Hutchinson’s stolen phone, and she was grazed by a bullet.
Surveillance video from the home shows the woman pull into the driveway yelling, “I just got shot in the head over a phone!”
Next, the video showed Calloway and Washington arrive, and one of the men walks up to the house demanding their property back. The grainy video cuts off after that, and the only other video shown to NBC Bay Area picks up again during the chaotic aftermath of the shooting.
According to the police report, Calloway and Washington entered the house through the rear door before Calloway was killed in a shootout with one of the home’s residents, who was shot in the foot. Washington was later arrested after running from the scene, according to the police report.
Neither Hutchinson nor Mercedes say they saw the shooting, but Mercedes rushed into the house after hearing the gunshots.
“I run in, and initially, the guy pulls the gun out on me,” Mercedes said. “I can see Charles laying on the ground. I’m explaining to the [armed resident] that [Calloway] is my husband, kids’ father.”
Mercedes said the man then lowered the gun, and she stayed with Calloway until he died, her voice the last thing he heard.
“I love you,” Mercedes said she told him. “I appreciate everything you’ve done for us.”
Mercedes, who said her kids are still grieving the loss of their father, said she demanded answers from officers as they responded to the shooting.
“I said, ‘Where were you guys? We called you. Why did you guys never come?’”
Hutchinson had a similar message for the department.
“Charles would be alive if police had responded at all,” Hutchinson said. “That’s why people are taking matters into their own hands, because they’re not getting assistance.”
The Oakland Police Department declined to comment, stating they’re still investigating the incident.
Oakland Police Officers’ Association President Huy Nguyen said he believes the city will see more incidents like this if it continues to reduce police staffing over budgetary constraints.
Hutchinson and Mercedes say they also want two people inside the home, named in court documents, held accountable, believing they're connected in some way to the theft. Alameda County court records show they have previous convictions for offenses such as car theft, identity theft, and possessing stolen property.
When contacted by NBC Bay Area, one of the home’s residents denied being involved in the theft and said the woman who showed up in the surveillance video saying she had been shot was heading to their house trying to sell them Hutchinson’s stolen phone. They said Calloway and Washington should have taken more time to explain the situation before coming into their home armed with weapons.
Washington, who has past convictions for theft himself, is now facing a long list of charges connected to the shooting, including homicide. Even though Calloway was shot by someone else inside the home, Washington is being charged with his death, accused of committing a felony that led to his cousin being killed.
Hutchinson doesn’t believe Washington should face homicide charges and said she never intended for Calloway to get involved.
“Charles was my son,” she said with tears in her eyes. “I actually asked Charles not to come. I didn’t want him to come.”
