A 25-year-old Oakland man is getting out of jail this week after serving almost 18 months behind bars in connection with a 2024 Juneteenth shootout by Lake Merritt that left more than a dozen people injured.

After an unsanctioned Juneteenth gathering by Oakland's Lake Merritt devolved into chaos and dozens of shots fired in 2024, there were many headlines calling this a mass shooting. 14 people sustained injuries, and many in the community were angry and saddened given that there had been another shooting on Juneeteenth three years earlier, which left one person dead.

In the days that followed, Oakland police and prosecutors only named one suspect, a then-23-year-old man named JaJuan Kelly, who was facing charges. But it became clear that what had occurred was a reckless shootout between multiple individuals, which left both the participants and bystanders injured. And two other suspects, Damijia McGee and Roosevelt Curry, were also identified and charged in the case.

As Bay Area News Group reports, Kelly, who was shot in the leg in the shootout, is set to be released on parole this week. His defense attorney argued that Kelly acted in self-defense and was lucky to be alive after shots rang out that day and Kelly fired back.

Under his plea deal, Kelly pleaded guilty to one count of possession of a firearm by a felon, and multiple charges of assault with a deadly weapon were dropped.

Investigators say that, as the day wore on that June 19, 2024, a sideshow took shape involving cars, ATVs, and dirtbikes, and subsequently there were multiple fights breaking out between groups of spectators. A shooutout began in the area of Grand and Euclid avenues, where dozens of shell casings were found on the ground.

Kelly was shot in the shin and the back of his left thigh, as the news group reports, and Curry, who was with him, was shot in the abdomen. Surveillance video showed Curry and McGee both running away from the scene after firing shots.

Curry's case is still pending, while McGee took a similar plea deal to Kelly, getting immediately paroled in October 2025.

Kelly, who was arrested in early July 2024, was expected to be released on parole for time served, with a two-year sentence discounted for good behavior while at Santa Rita Jail.

Previously: 14 People Shot at Unsanctioned Juneteenth Event at Oakland's Lake Merritt