Details emerge about suspected gunman in Oakland parole agent killing

OAKLAND The -year-old man accused of fatally shooting a parole agent Thursday in East Oakland was circulated from jail just months earlier for a random stabbing near Lake Merritt where bystanders disclosed he had been mumbling and talking to himself before the attack New details began to emerge Friday about Bryan Keith Hall the Oakland man functionaries say shot and killed a parole agent inside a state corrections office in East Oakland The death of Joshua Byrd marked the first on-duty killing of a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation officer in seven years Hall remained held without bail Friday morning at the Santa Rita Jail on suspicion of first-degree murder while awaiting an arraignment scheduled for Monday Court records show Hall has faced numerous arrests over the past years across Northern California including in Alameda Contra Costa and Stanislaus counties Greater part just now he was sentenced Feb in the stabbing of a man in Oakland s Lakeshore retail area The stabbing happened around a m the morning of Nov in block of Lakeshore Avenue in one of the city s busiest commercial areas Viewers claimed he attacked a man who appeared to be either hanging posters outside a building or talking on his phone fully at random plunging a knife into his lower neck before fleeing according to court testimony One person saw Hall panhandling before the attack while another person revealed Hall approached his wagon and spoke incoherently Everyone who saw the encounter mentioned that Hall appeared to either talking or mumbling to himself in the moments beforehand court records show Oakland police hastily arrested Hall and he was later charged with attempted murder At a key evidentiary hearing in November Hall s community defender raised serious concerns about the man s wellbeing suggesting the attack was likely driven by chosen sort of mental fitness issues Even so Alameda County Judge Thomas Reardon explained enough evidence existed to send the scenario to trial In January Hall accepted a plea deal in the affair that called for him to plead no contest to felony assault with a deadly weapon in exchange for all of the other counts being dropped court records show He was expected to be sentenced to four years in state prison and he could shave half of that prison sentence off with good behavior Since Hall had already spent more than two years at Santa Rita Jail awaiting trial on the charges he was expected to be distributed the day of his sentencing which was scheduled for Feb Judge Thomas Nixon mentioned at the plea hearing Defendants in such cases typically spend two years on parole according to state sentencing guidelines It remained unclear early Friday afternoon whether Byrd was Hall s personal parole agent or whether the two had previously interacted It also was not without delay clear where Hall had been living and what types of services he had been receiving while on parole Hall has faced numerous other charges in previous incidents He was convicted of second-degree robbery conviction in Alameda County in and assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury unlawful taking of a van and evading police in Stanislaus County in November Other convictions include drug offenses and truck theft and possession of a firearm by a felon