A two-year manhunt ended in Missouri on Wednesday with the capture of the third suspect involved in the 2021 fatal shooting of retired police officer and TV crew security guard Kevin Nishita. The U.S. Marshals arrested Laron Gilbert in Blue Springs after he had been on the run since the Oakland incident, the U.S. Marshals Service announced.
The arrest followed a tip-off to investigators that Gilbert might be in the Kansas City area. Task force members tracked him as he drove through Kansas City, eventually following him to a parking lot in Blue Springs. When they attempted to apprehend him, he attempted to escape on foot across Highway 40 but was swiftly taken into custody following a statement by the Marshals Service.
Gilbert, alongside Shadihia Mitchell and Herschel Hale, is accused of the attempted robbery and killing of Nishita, who was at the time employed by Star Protection Agency to protect a KRON-TV news team. According to Mercury News, all three suspects had initially been arrested, but a failure to book Gilbert on a murder warrant allowed him to evade capture until now.
Public Defender Brendon Woods, representing Mitchell, has criticized the investigative process, claiming that investigators, including Oakland police Detective Phong Tran, attempted to "cover up their incompetence by skewing the case to make it seem like our client was the shooter," Henry K. Lee reported. While Mitchell was originally charged with Nishita's murder, that charge was later dropped.
UPDATE: I’ve learned fugitive Laron Gilbert, wanted in connection with shooting death of ex-officer & TV security guard Kevin Nishita, was arrested by @USMarshalsHQ in Kansas pic.twitter.com/DADFueRV4g
— Henry K. Lee (@henrykleeKTVU) January 18, 2024
Although the three men still face the possibility of life imprisonment, controversially, Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price has removed sentencing enhancements that could have imposed a no-parole life sentence. Price's office has taken a similar approach in other severe cases, according to Mercury News. As for Gilbert, he is being held at the Jackson County Detention Center, with extradition to California pending, the details of which are yet to be confirmed.
