FAIR SHOOTING SUSPECT CHARGED

Charges are reduced to assault from attempted murder because most victims
were shot below the waist

PLEASANTON -- A 22-year-old Richmond man was charged Tuesday with the July
4 shootings at the Alameda County Fair, while investigators searched for a
motive.

Jamai Desmond Johnson was stone-faced as Pleasanton Municipal Court Judge
D. Ronald Hyde read the charges: nine felony counts of assault with a
deadly weapon and two felony counts of possessing drugs with the intent to
sell.

As family and friends looked on, Johnson faintly answered "yes" when asked
if he understood the charges. He asked for a public defender and was
ordered to return Thursday to enter a plea.

Johnson, who is being held without bail in Santa Rita Jail, originally was
booked on suspicion of attempted murder. The Alameda County District
Attorney's Office decided Tuesday to reduce the charges, saying the
evidence does not support an attempt to kill. Eight of nine bullet wounds
were below the waist.

"That strongly indicates no attempt to kill," said John Bell, an assistant
district attorney. "The defendant isn't going to tell you what he was
thinking. No one heard him running and shouting, 'I'm going to kill you;
I'm going to kill you.'"

Johnson was carrying five individually-packaged rocks of cocaine and seven
one-gram bags of marijuana when he was arrested, said Alameda County
sheriff's Lt. Dave Hoig.

Johnson, originally identified by Alameda County investigators as Jamal
Johnson, was charged as Jamai Johnson -- the name by which he is known in
Contra Costa County court records.

At Tuesday's hearing, two men showed up who had been in the midway with
their families during the shooting. Each said they had come to vent
frustrations from the scary night.

"At this point I just wanted to see him," said John Keene, a probation
officer at the court, who was at the fair with his wife and toddler. "It
wasn't anything in particular; I was just angered something like this would
happen at a family venue."

Steve French of Castro Valley, who was at the fair Saturday with his
fiancee and his 4- and 5-year-old daughters, said he would continue to
attend Johnson's hearings.

"I guess it's my way of relieving pressure he has caused myself and my
family," he said.

Police say Johnson opened fire in the carnival at 8:20 p.m. Saturday,
wounding nine people and touching off a panic. Dozens were injured in the
stampede out of the midway.

Police originally believed there were eight gunshot victims, but decided
later an 18-year-old Richmond man -- first thought to have been hurt in the
stampede following the shooting -- had been grazed by a bullet.

Only one gunshot victim remains in the hospital. An 18-year-old Oakland
woman who was shot in the buttocks and suffered kidney damage was in good
condition Tuesday at Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, said spokeswoman
Cassandra Phelps.

Police searched a Richmond home Monday where they say Johnson lived with
his girlfriend, Pearvine Mitchell, and her family. They found a 9 mm
handgun and a bulletproof vest.

Police say the 9 mm gun that was used in the shooting, and was found on the
suspect when he was arrested at the fair Saturday, was not registered to
Johnson. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is checking on
ownership of the gun, said Hoig.

According to court records, Johnson, a father of three, has had limited
run-ins with the law, and none of them violent. The most severe penalty
Johnson has received is a $100 fine and a six-month suspension of his
driver's license on a misdemeanor drug charge. Last year he told police he
had never fired a weapon except for a BB gun.

In March 1995, Johnson was arrested in Richmond for possession of two
pieces of rock cocaine. Before he was searched, he had been questioned by a
Richmond police officer who suspected him of stealing tools and a bicycle
from a garage. The theft charge was dropped, and the drug charge dismissed
after he completed a drug education program at Contra Costa College.

In October 1997, Richmond police charged Johnson with possession of
marijuana and hashish after searching the 16th Street apartment he shared
with his girlfriend and their three children.

Mike Hammoudh, a clerk at Mike's Market which is a few blocks from the
Bissell Avenue home where Johnson lives, said, "He was a good customer, we
never had any problem with him."

Hammoudh said Johnson has cashed checks at the store for years, including
one Saturday, when Johnson told Hammoudh he was going to celebrate the
holiday. "I told him 'Have fun.'"

Hammoudh said he couldn't believe it when he heard Johnson had been
arrested. "I was surprised when I heard the news," he said. "Him, shooting
at people? He's so quiet and stuff."

Staff writer Rob Shea contributed to this story.

Edition: SRVT, Section: A, Page: 3

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)