This is the second skateboard beating charge for Joshua Stroman of Oakland, and this one was fatal, making it Oakland’s 131st homicide of the year — the most since 2012.
An Oakland homicide on December 13 established a terrible milestone for the city, and the circumstances behind it are unusual to say the least. On Monday, December 13, Oakland police found a man dead on the ground from repeated head trauma, according to NBC Bay Area. Now police think they've sorted it all out, and KTVU reports that 36-year-old Joshua Stroman of Oakland is charged with allegedly beating a homeless man to death with a skateboard.
The victim was 40-year-old Kenyon Graham, the beating took place in the Temescal neighborhood on the 500 block of 45th Street, and oddly, Stroman called 911 to report the murder that he himself had allegedly committed.
A 36-year-old man has been arrested and charged with murder for allegedly using a skateboard to hit a homeless man on the head repeatedly while he slept on a sidewalk in Oakland earlier this month, Alameda County prosecutors said. https://t.co/IYeTH9L1J6
— KTVU (@KTVU) December 23, 2021
But there’s more. According to the Bay Area News Group, this is the second time Stroman has bashed someone over the head with his skateboard in the last six months. “Stroman is also facing prosecution for allegedly hitting a man in the head with a skateboard June 21 in Palo Alto, in an unprovoked attack that left the victim hospitalized,” the news group reports. “Palo Alto police said in a news release at the time that the victim, a man in his 40s, did not know Stroman — who listed an East Palo Alto address at the time — or why he was targeted.”
That attack was not fatal, but this one was. According to KPIX, Stroman allegedly hit Graham over the head repeatedly with his skateboard while Graham slept, for reasons unknown. Stroman then called 911 himself to report the murder. Police found Stroman on Wednesday, a few blocks from the scene of the crime and still carrying the skateboard, and he immediately confessed to the killing.
Stroman will appear in Alameda County Superior Court on Thursday to enter a plea.
This was Oakland’s 131st homicide of the year, per Bay Area News Group, and since it occurred there have been two more, bringing the year's total to 133. That is the highest number of homicides the city has suffered since 2012, when the total was 131, and up from a 2018 low of 75.
Related: Bartender At Popular Oakland Restaurant Allegedly Beats Homeless Man To Death With Bat [SFist]
Image: Google Street View
