OAKLAND — A man who allegedly cut off his ankle monitor and escaped from parole just three days after completing a 17-year prison sentence has been hit with a federal weapons charge, court records show.
Terrance King, 30, was arrested after police received a tip that he was coming to the Bay Area from Southern California looking for whoever killed his brother in Oakland, while King was still in prison. When authorities caught up with him in San Leandro, he allegedly had a bag containing an AK-47-style pistol and was trying to evade arrest, prosecutors allege.
King was initially charged with a probation violation and unlawful possession of a weaponbut now he faces a federal charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm. In an effort to keep King in jail while the case is pending, prosecutors not only referred to him as an Oakland “gang leader” but also said ballistics examiners found a “preliminary connection” between the gun and three previous shootings that occurred before King’s release, including a mass shooting on June 19 in Oakland.
King’s attorney in the state case filed court documents saying he came to the Bay Area to gather his family and leave the area, not for a nefarious purpose.
A federal judge signed off on King’s detention, citing the facts of the case and King’s alleged gang membership.
King was among 17 alleged members of the Oakland-based Case Gang arrested in 2013. The defendants faced charges ranging from robbery and assault to pimping, and King eventually took a plea deal and a 17-year sentence, records show.
Last April, King’s 25-year-old brother, Hodari Lyons, was shot and killed in the 6900 block of Hamilton Street in East Oakland. When prison officials and authorities learned that Lyons was King’s brother, a group of law enforcement officers from Oakland police, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and a parole officer met with King at the prison to discourage him from retaliating, according to authorities.
King was released to Southern California on June 28. On July 1, police say, he had removed his ankle monitor and was wanted on a so-called conditional warrant.