Smoking outside bar trips up murder suspect
A suspect in an Oakland homicide was arrested after he was found smoking outside a sports bar near Hayward in violation of a county law, authorities said Thursday.
Franklin Bean Jr., 30, was smoking just outside Mac’s Sports Bar on Meekland Avenue in an unincorporated area near Hayward when he was spotted by Alameda County sheriff’s deputies about 10:50 p.m. Friday, said sheriff’s Sgt. J.D. Nelson.
A county law enacted in 2009 prohibits lighting up within 20 feet of buildings in which smoking is banned. The deputies were preparing to issue Bean a citation when they ran a computer check on his name and discovered he was wanted by Oakland police.
Bean is a suspect in the Dec. 17 shooting death of Jeremy Johnson, 25, who was killed outside the Black and White Market on the 2600 block of Fruitvale Avenue.
The two men had gotten into an argument, after which Bean walked away, but then pulled a gun and shot Johnson in the head, authorities said. Bean told police he had shot Johnson in self-defense.
Prosecutors have charged Bean with murder, and he is being held without bail at an Oakland jail. He has previous convictions for burglary, drug possession and possession of stolen property, court records show.
Sheriff’s Sgt. Bret Scheuller and Deputy J.D. Stewart came across Bean as they were checking the bar to make sure no one under 21 was inside, Nelson said.
“From the time deputies go in the academy, people instruct them, ‘You never know who you’re dealing with on any call,’ and this is a perfect example of that,” Nelson said. “This is a very small infraction of a smoking ordinance, and it turns out he’s a live murder suspect from a totally different jurisdiction.”
