The Race War Continues
10/07/2011
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Not the Racial Holy War that the $PLC is worried about, and ain't happening except in Morris Dees fervid imagination, but the continuing black war in the San Francisco Bay Area on other minorities. And this ain't the knockdown game.

The Chronicle October 6, 2011

Deputies Kill Cupertino Quarry-Killings Suspect

The suspect in the Cupertino quarry shooting rampage that left three men dead was shot and killed Thursday by three Santa Clara County sheriff's deputies who spotted him as he crouched behind a car in a Sunnyvale neighborhood, authorities said.

The shooting happened at about 7:30 a.m. outside 934 Lorne Way, just north of Homestead Road and east of Wolfe Road, in the same neighborhood where law enforcement agents went door-to-door all day Wednesday looking for triple-homicide suspect Shareef Allman.

Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith said Allman, 49, had been holding a handgun when the three deputies on routine patrol spotted him crouching behind a parked car in the driveway of the home.

"The deputies identified him as the suspect," Smith said. "He did display, in a threatening manner, a firearm."

All three deputies, who were in full uniform, shot at Allman, the sheriff said. No one else was injured. Smith would not say if Allman had fired his weapon.

The names of the deputies, two men and a woman, were not released pending investigations by the sheriff's office, the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety and the district attorney's office.

Movements unknown

Smith said she was surprised that Allman had escaped the daylong search Wednesday. Many details about his movements remain unclear, she said.

"We don't know if he was in a house during the night, we don't know if he was outside during the night, we don't know that he remained within the perimeter during the night, but we suspect he did," she said.

A man who lives next to the house on Lorne Way, 41-year-old David Kloba, said he had heard seven to 10 shots in rapid succession.

"I'm just happy they got the guy," Kloba said, "and I'm happy it's over."

Allman is suspected of gunning down three co-workers at Lehigh Southwest Cement Permanente Plant on Stevens Creek Boulevard in the foothills of Cupertino about 4:15 a.m. Wednesday. Allman worked at the plant for 15 years, most recently as a truck driver.

About three hours after the quarry shootings, Allman allegedly tried to carjack a woman and shot and wounded her at a parking lot at Homestead Road and Tantau Avenue, 5 miles east of the plant.

Workplace grudges

A co-worker, Kerry Shaffer, said Allman had been upset about being reprimanded for "making a lot of mistakes" and for being involved in "more accidents in the last year or two than people have done over 20 years."

A neighbor at the San Jose apartment complex where Allman lived, Paulette Conner, said Allman was unhappy about being moved to the plant's night shift.

Allman liked helping his 18-year-old daughter with her schoolwork, and he produced and hosted a regular talk show on public access cable television. Working nights cut into time for both those pursuits, friends said.

Twenty-year-old Brandon Powell of Sacramento, who considers Allman an uncle, said the suspect visited him Saturday so they could talk about Powell's progress in college. He said Allman had brought an assault rifle in from his car, and Powell asked him, "What are you going to do with that?"

"He said he was taking it to the range, and he said there were some people at his job he worked with that were messing with him," Powell said. He added that Allman then said he was "untamed," and could only be "contained for so long."

"I was laughing," Powell said. "I thought he was just playing. He didn't say nothing about killing anybody."

Bias on job

A longtime friend of the suspect, Walter Wilson, board member of the African American Community Service Agency in San Jose, said, "Shareef felt that there was some discrimination on that job, but I had the impression he had it under control."

Wilson said Allman told him he thought the quarry company was targeting older employees for layoffs so it could hire cheaper, younger workers.

"He also felt that he encountered discrimination because he was the only black person in the job that he had," Wilson said. "He applied for a supervisor job and they gave it to a person with less experience than him, who was not African American. Shareef thought that maybe they didn't like black folks."

The local head of Allman's union said the driver had just come off of a three-week suspension for hitting a wire on the job with his truck.

"We talked last Friday and he didn't seem to be angry about the suspension," said Bill Hoyt, secretary-treasurer of Teamster Local 287. "He told me he thought he was done wrong, and then there were a couple of things said and we actually laughed."

Hoyt said Allman had also had conflicts with his company in the past over working hours. He said the union hasn't made any conclusions about whether Allman was experiencing racial or age discrimination, but that it would be seeking information.

"There are people up there who have 10 or more years on him, so I'm not sure to what make of the age thing," Hoyt said.

Company silent

A representative of the Lehigh cement plant said the company wouldn't discuss Allman's work record. The plant is "in a state of shock" over the shootings, and the main focus now is working with grief counselors, said spokesman Tom Chizmadia.

The quarry victims were shot during a routine workplace safety meeting. Co-worker Shaffer said Allman had repeatedly yelled, "You think you can f— with me?" as he shot his victims with a handgun and an assault rifle.

Killed were Mark Munoz, 59, of San Jose, Manuel Pinon, 48, of Newman (Stanislaus County) and John Vallejos, 51, of San Jose. Six other men, including Vallejos' brother, Jesse Vallejos, 52, of Gilroy were wounded.

Friends and acquaintances said Allman had never shown a violent streak before Wednesday morning. But 19 years ago, his ex-wife told a Santa Clara County judge that he had violent tendencies.

"My husband has a violent temper, cannot stand anyone to disagree with him, he interprets it as a challenge to him and he reacts with physical violence," Valerie Allman, mother of Shareef Allman's now-20-year-old son, wrote in a 1992 request for a temporary restraining order against her husband. The request was granted.

His current friends said that was before Allman found religion and straightened out his life.

"I was hoping to be able to talk to Shareef in jail, to ask what went so wrong," said Pastor Tony Williams of San Jose, a longtime friend. "Now I don't think we'll ever know. It's locked in his heart and it's gone."

And the professional Mexicans like Ruben "The Sandwich" Navarrette are silent of course. He is more worried about the lack of amnesty for his compadres. And it turns out that Allman was a professional race hustler much like The Sandwich.

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