Calif. AG to look into monitoring of parolee

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Parolees such as the one who killed three Oakland police officers and left a fourth brain-dead over the weekend must be tracked and restricted more aggressively, state Attorney General Jerry Brown said Monday.

The former Oakland mayor said he will examine how 26-year-old Lovelle Mixon was monitored after his release from prison in November on a conviction for assault with a deadly weapon. Mixon also was a suspect in a murder last year but was never charged, according to state prison officials.

“Mixon was certainly a character that needed more supervision,” Brown said. “In Oakland, the highway patrol has an office there, sheriff and police. And all those agencies should have a list of the more dangerous, threatening parolees so they can keep a watch on them.”

Problems involving parolees from California’s overcrowded prison system have long beset state officials who must monitor them, as well as local officials who try to keep streets safe and federal authorities who enforce firearms and other laws.

Mixon was one of 164 Oakland parolees in mid-March who had outstanding arrest warrants for parole violations, state prison records show.

The city of 400,000 had more than 1,900 total parolees at the time, including nearly 300 who had been returned to custody or whose parole was about to be revoked. Statewide, almost 17,000 of the nearly 125,000 parolees were wanted for violating their parole requirements, state records show.

Mixon shot two motorcycle officers who had stopped him Saturday afternoon. Sgt. Mark Dunakin, 40, was killed; Officer John Hege, 41, was declared brain-dead and remained on life support Monday.

Mixon then fled to what his family said was a younger sister’s apartment around the corner. When a SWAT team stormed the apartment, Sgt. Ervin Romans, 43, and Sgt. Daniel Sakai, 35, were gunned down before officers fatally shot Mixon.