Gunshot Murder Victim Found
in Idling Car in Oakland Hills

OAKLAND -- A Hayward resident was shot to death and his body discovered inside his car yesterday in the Oakland Hills, police reported.

The body of Joseph Mabrey, 36, was found around midnight on the 3200 block of Storer Ave. Firefighters and paramedics responding to the scene discovered the victim inside the car with the engine idling.

Mabrey was taken to Highland Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 12:25 a.m. Police have few leads in the case.

"There is no motive at this point," said Lt. Brian Thiem. "We do not know if it's drug related or not."

Thiem said violent crime is rare in the Oakland hills area.

"This is such a little known area (for crime) that our investigator had to ask the patrol sergeant to find out where the street was," said Thiem. "That is a good indication this area isn't a hot spot."

According to police reports, Mabrey was married. There are no suspects in the case, said Sgt. Gus Galindo, one of two homicide investigators on duty this week. Galindo will be interviewing family and friends for leads and to trace Mabrey's whereabouts in his final hours and days.

Mabrey's wife and a pastor from church waited outside the homicide unit at the Oakland Police department while a family member spoke privately with detectives.

The victim's wife said she didn't know why her husband was killed. The women declined any other public comment.

The murder was the 92nd of the year in Oakland, five more than last year's total. Forensics experts, however, say the difference is not yet a significantly meaningful one, given Oakland's size and crime patterns.

The other three v
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ictims of killings this week were: 20-year-old Andre Johnson, who was killed at 4:25 a.m. a few blocks from the McArthur BART station on 48th Street and Shattuck Avenue, McKinley Williams, a 33-year-old Richmond construction worker, who was shot Monday at 1:47 p.m. in downtown Oakland on Sycamore Street after playing basketball; and Omari Locke, 22, who died on the 3300 block of Deering Street in East Oakland Wednesday at 8:50 p.m.

All four victims died of gunshot wounds, Galindo said.

"A motive on three of the murders has not been established," Galindo said. "We have an idea of what (the murder of Johnson) is about, but we're not 100 percent sure."

Of the Oakland murders this year, about one-third are solved and two-thirds are still under investigation, Lt. Thiem said, adding that the homicide unit is currently overburdened with cases.