OPD continues to slander Alan Blueford in the press

This leak from OPD comes after the department and the City of Oakland have refused–for months–to release the police report to the family. The Blueford family even attended the Oakland City Council meeting on September 18 to demand the report, which was briefly promised to them before OPD Chief Howard Jordan changed his mind.

Suddenly this allegation is released, with no way of substantiating it, seemingly as revenge against the Bluefords for demanding justice for their son. If this evidence were so clearly damning, they likely would have released it months earlier.

“First we want to know if it’s actually true,” said Dan Siegel, former legal advisor to Mayor Jean Quan and a supporter of the Justice 4 Alan Blueford campaign. “The police have already lied to the press, claiming that Alan shot at Masso, which we now know is not true. Now they leak this item to the press because they think it will help their case, but we still can’t see the police report.”

This latest action by the Oakland Police Department is yet another maneuver to avoid any accountability for the actions of Officer Miguel Masso, who should have never been hired in the first place. Masso faced brutality allegations during his previous tenure at the New York Police Department, a fact which did not stop OPD from hiring him.

It has never been explained why Masso shot himself in the foot with his own weapon, whether this was an accident that caused Masso to think he was shot or done on purpose to cover-up the shooting. Additionally, Masso had absolutely no reason to stop Alan the night of May 6 in the first place.

OPD Chief Howard Jordan claimed that Masso thought Blueford and his friends had a concealed weapon or drugs, an incredible claim as these two items look nothing alike. More likely, Masso saw a group of young African-American men on the streets of Oakland late at night and assumed they were criminals and treated them as such.

The allegation that Alan’s fingerprints were on the gun says nothing about the events leading up to his murder. Whether he pointed the gun at Masso, or Masso even saw him holding it at all, will remain unverified until all the evidence in the case is released–something OPD has steadfastly refused to do.

“We still want the police report. We still want Masso fired. We still want an end to stop-and-frisk practices in Oakland,” said Adam Blueford, Alan’s father. “This doesn’t change anything for us. This is just another broken promise from the police that they need to be held accountable for.”

The Bluefords and their supporters will be attending the October 2 meeting of the Oakland City Council to once again demand justice for their son.