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OAKLAND — A Bay Area woman accepted a plea deal and an assault conviction for her relatively small role in a deadly 2022 shootout at an Oakland gas station, court records show.
Tamia Foster, 23, pleaded no contest to assault in exchange for a three-year prison term, but she could avoid incarceration altogether. The deal allows her to participate in a counseling residential treatment program in lieu of jail or prison, and Judge Morris Jacobson, who accepted her plea, said in court he’d prefer it.
“I would rather see you doing time in a program than in jail or prison, okay. So I’m very supportive of that,” Jacobson said at Foster’s October change-of-plea hearing. Foster is scheduled to be formally sentenced next month.
Foster was charged with assault last year for allegedly handing a gun to 29-year-old Stavon Moore just moments before police allege that Moore and 22-year-old Tyja Braswell engaged in a shootout at a gas station on 102nd Avenue and International Boulevard in Oakland. Braswell was seriously injured by gunfire and an innocent bystander, 64-year-old Rodney Davis, was killed.
Police say Moore and Braswell being arguing around 8 p.m. on March 19, 2022, at the gas station, and that Foster passed a gun to Moore, who began firing. Braswell, armed with her own pistol, returned fire. Now prosecutors are attempting to hold them liable for Davis’ death, and for allegedly attempting to murder one another.
Video surveillance footage of the shootout that has been publicly released shows Braswell screaming “Don’t shoot me,” then screaming for help after she is struck by gunfire. She appears to be hit a second time as she’s lying down outside, after setting the gun down.
Foster was released from custody last July, while Moore and Braswell remain in Santa Rita Jail with no-bail holds.
At Foster’s change of plea hearing, Deputy District Attorney Edward Vieira-Ducey made it clear that the deal doesn’t require Foster to testify for the prosecution.
“The videotape takes care of that,” Jacobson said, referring to the security tape that captured the entire incident.
“Very much so,” Vieira-Ducey replied.
Foster’s attorney, David Cohen, said he would advise Foster to plead the Fifth if she was ever subpoenaed by the prosecution or the defense. Moore and Braswell are still awaiting a preliminary hearing, where a judge will hear testimony and decide whether to order them to stand trial, or to dismiss the case.
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