Four men charged in the 2024 shooting death of 17-year-old Dennis Rumble outside an East Oakland gas station have pleaded no contest to resolve the case, with one of them, 31-year-old Dawon Carter, admitting to voluntary manslaughter and receiving a 16-year prison term. The other three — 27-year-old Jamareae Perry of Oakland, 30-year-old Darryl Deloney Jr. of Sacramento, and 33-year-old Dewayne Carter — each pleaded no contest to assault and were sentenced to six years in prison.
Prosecutors said Dawon Carter shot Rumble on the 9600 block of Edes Avenue, according to The Mercury News. Police had earlier described five gunmen surrounding Rumble. Authorities identified four defendants, with surveillance footage reportedly showing the group firing at him, according to Mercury News.
What the reporting says about the events before the shooting
Rumble had joined an East Bay motorcycle ride out with some of the defendants on April 21, 2024, according to the newspaper’s plea-deal coverage. The report says he was shot at near an Oakland Burger King hours before he was killed. Prosecutors said an argument later broke out near Edes and 98th avenues after Deloney insulted Rumble’s sister, and that Rumble was killed after defending her.
The Mercury News reported that investigators found casings indicating 60 shots had been fired. Its account says Dawon Carter and Dewayne Carter ran together after the shooting, while Perry and Deloney took cover and fired after Rumble had been killed.
Gun Found on Rumble Linked to Earlier Shootings
Authorities said Rumble had a firearm, and police found an unloaded gun in his underwear at the scene. Court records cited by the Mercury News linked the weapon to two 2023 shootings and another in 2024. At a 2025 preliminary hearing, Judge Scott Patton said Rumble might have fired it, but he was not convinced that he had.
Defense attorneys argued in court papers that the other three defendants could not have shot Rumble because of where they were when he was hit. The newspaper reported that the three fired their own guns during the encounter. The Mercury News also reported that Rumble had survived an earlier shooting: at age 15, he was in a vehicle attacked in a shooting that killed Christopher Munguia Barajas.
Defense Alleges Police Pressured Key Witness
The case also raised questions about investigators’ treatment of a witness. Defense attorneys accused police of coercing eyewitness testimony, according to court records cited in the newspaper’s reporting. Jay Brown testified for the defense at the 2025 preliminary hearing; prosecutors later said he had recanted that testimony, according to the records.
The Mercury News reported that Oakland detectives Roland Aguilar and Gerald Moriarty questioned Brown for nearly two hours after his arrest. Defense court papers allege Moriarty warned Brown that repeating his testimony at trial would be a “huge mess” he would “really regret.” The papers also quote Moriarty as saying, “I’m sure you don’t, and I don’t want you to either. And that was why I brought you here.”
Dawon Carter's Record and a Shortened Prison Stay
Dawon Carter had been released from prison only months before Rumble was killed, following an attempted-murder sentence tied to a 2009 robbery and shooting in Contra Costa, according to court records. He was 14 years old at the time of that 2009 case and was later resentenced in it. Court records cited in the plea coverage state that Carter had been active in local charities and youth programs, and a defense court filing said he planned to start a nonprofit offering re-entry and youth services; he was also awaiting enrollment in Students Overcoming Adversity and Recidivism Through Solano Community College, per court records.
A Comparable Oakland Teen Case
The Rumble case echoes an earlier, unrelated Oakland prosecution involving a teenage victim. Michael Smith was charged in 2021 with murdering 15-year-old Christopher Munguia during an attempted carjacking, along with charges of shooting into an occupied car and firearm possession by a felon, according to mercurynews.com. Munguia had been shot while riding in a vehicle near 87th Avenue and E Street before officers arrested Smith after the suspect vehicle crashed during an attempted traffic stop. The Mercury News's reporting on the Rumble pleas notes that Smith remains jailed with pending murder charges.
The Case Unfolds Amid a Citywide Drop in Violence
The plea deals land as Oakland has reported a sharp decline in violent crime. Police recorded 67 homicides in 2025, the city's lowest annual total in decades and a 22% drop from 2024, according to KQED. Aggravated assaults fell 10%, firearm robberies dropped by half, and motor vehicle thefts dropped by nearly 40% that year. City leaders attributed the decrease to violence prevention programs, police surveillance technology and interagency coordination, and KQED noted the drop also mirrored national trends seen in San Francisco, San Jose, Chicago and New York City.
Citywide homicide counts do not show neighborhood trends
For a longer citywide comparison, The Oaklandside, citing the Oakland Police Department’s end-of-year report, said Oakland recorded 126 total homicides in 2023 and 86 in 2024. The 2024 count included justified killings and other deaths not classified as murders. The article’s cited 2025 figure is 67 homicides citywide. These figures provide citywide context, but they do not show whether violence rose or fell specifically in East Oakland; the cited data do not provide an East Oakland comparison, and the 2024 total includes deaths beyond those classified as murders.
