Chauncey Bailey, a local journalist with the Oakland Post [no online site] and who had previously worked at the Oakland Tribune, was shot to death at around 7:30 a.m. this morning in downtown Oakland in what the authorities are characterizing as an assassination-style hit.

Bailey covered African-American issues in his time at the Oakland Tribune, but was fired in 2005 for ethics violations, He had just been named the new editor of the weekly magazine Oakland Post in June.

Bailey was shot first in the back and then in the head by a masked gunman wearing all black at 14th Street and Alice, a few blocks away from the Oakland Post offices.

Picture from the Oakland Tribune, via CBS 5.