All charges have been dropped in the case against Marquise Cooper, one of four suspects who has been jailed in connection with the December 29 shooting death of Oakland police officer Tuan Le.
Alameda County prosecutors announced Wednesday that three charges of second-degree burglary against Cooper had been dropped. As the East Bay Times reports, the move comes weeks after a judge tossed out a murder charge against Cooper, saying that the prosecution lacked sufficient evidence that Cooper had been a "major participant" in killing of Le.
Cooper was alleged to have acted as a lookout on the night of the crime.
Cooper, 35, remains in custody and still faces a probation violation charge. He, along with two of the other suspects in the shooting of Le, was convicted in a 2021 residential burglary in Pittsburg, and was still on probation when this crime occurred.
Ernie Castillo, Cooper's attorney, tells the East Bay Times that he is "glad" the charges were dropped, and said, "Marquise and his family look forward to [him] getting home soon."
Three other suspects remain charged with Le's death, and they are being held without bail. They are Mark Demetrious Sanders, Allen Starr Brown, and Sebron Russell. Like Cooper, Russell was said early on to only have been involved in the burglary that preceded the shooting, however he is still facing a murder charge, and per the East Bay Times, a judge ruled in mid-August that there was sufficient evidence for all three men to stand trial for the killing.
Le was working undercover in December when he and another officer responded to a report of a burglary at Peakz, a marijuana dispensary near the Oakland waterfront, on the 400 block of Embarcadero. It was the second burglary to occur at the same location that night, and Le and his partner were attempting to intervene when they were allegedly ambushed by the suspects.
Sanders, who previously did time for murder as a juvenile, is believed to have been the one to fire the fatal shot.
A crew of at least seven individuals is believed to have been committing multiple burglaries that night, and it was around 4:30 am that Le and his partner, in an unmarked vehicle, begain trailing a car driven by Russell. Investigators say that Sanders, in another vehicle, pulled behind Le's vehicle and sprayed it with 22 shots, killing him and injuring his partner.
Cooper, according to investigators, was in another vehicle on the other side of I-880 acting as lookout when the shots rang out.
This was the first on-duty death of an Oakland officer in 15 years.
Previously: Suspects In Oakland Cop Killing Plead Not Guilty In Latest Court Appearance