An Alameda County jury has convicted 33-year-old Jamazea Kittell of first-degree murder for a drive-by shooting that killed 23-year-old Perez Kalief-Chambers on the 9400 block of C Street in Oakland in July 2025 — a killing prosecutors say happened while Kittell was out on bail in an entirely separate case involving a Vallejo police officer who had shot him two years earlier. Before trial, Kittell was jailed without bail while awaiting trial.
According to The Mercury News, the jury also convicted Kittell of assault with a firearm and of possessing guns and ammunition as a felon, with his prior robbery convictions in Alameda County and a gun possession conviction in Contra Costa County making it illegal for him to have firearms, authorities said. His murder conviction includes enhancements for using a gun and for carrying out a drive-by shooting.
The July 2025 Shooting
Police said Kittell pulled up in an Acura on July 9, 2025, and opened fire on two men who were working on a car — killing Kalief-Chambers and narrowly missing a second victim who was underneath the vehicle at the time. Kittell then fled, according to the same report, eventually making it as far as the San Bernardino County town of Apple Valley before investigators caught up with him.
Police arrested Kittell after he reached Apple Valley. The Acura had been taken to a service station.
A 2023 Shooting by a Vallejo Officer
The bail case tangled up in this story traces back to June 27, 2023, when Vallejo Officer Brad Kim shot Kittell in the face during a gas-station burglary response. Kim testified that Kittell's Dodge Charger lunged toward him before he fired through the windshield, saying, “I felt the vehicle lunge toward me.” Kittell survived.
Solano County prosecutors sought to charge Kittell with attempted murder for allegedly ramming Kim with the vehicle, but Judge Robert Bowers found insufficient cause to hold him on that charge in October 2023. “I don't think there is sufficient cause to hold him to answer for an attempted murder. I don't see it,” Bowers said at the time, according to the same outlet's report. The judge did find probable cause that Kittell committed assault or assault on a police officer, and the charges were lowered to assault. Bail was reduced to $100,000, and Kittell was later set for trial on the assault charges.
At a preliminary hearing in October 2023, Judge Robert Bowers allowed a felony assault-with-a-deadly-weapon charge to proceed but rejected attempted murder, finding insufficient evidence that Kittell intended to kill Kim. Bowers set bail at $100,000, citing potential danger and flight risk, after Kittell had been held without bail since June. The ruling narrowed the case but left a jury to decide whether Kittell’s actions amounted to assault. The judge’s ruling and bail decision came after reviewing video presented at the preliminary hearing.
Kim was hired by the Vallejo Police Department in 2018. The department has faced years of scrutiny over its use of force, including a 2020 scandal in which some officers were found to be bending their badges to commemorate shootings.
The shooting unfolded amid a broader state reform effort. In 2020, Vallejo and the California Department of Justice began a reform process covering 45 recommendations after scrutiny of the department’s practices; when that agreement expired in June 2023, the state said the department had reached substantial compliance with 20. The DOJ announced a further five-year reform plan in October 2023, with measures addressing force investigations, accountability, civilian complaints and oversight.
A Department Under Reform Pressure
Vallejo revised its policy on officers shooting at moving vehicles.
The policy change followed the Kittell shooting by just three days. Vallejo’s earlier rules advised officers against firing at moving vehicles but did not generally prohibit it; the revised policy bars firing at a vehicle’s occupants unless they pose an immediate threat of death or serious injury by means other than the vehicle. The updated rule also restricts shooting from moving vehicles, adding a specific use-of-force limit to the department’s wider reform effort.
For now, the Oakland case has reached a verdict while the Solano County matter tied to Kim's 2023 shooting remains unresolved. Kittell is due back in court for sentencing on the murder conviction, though a date has not been confirmed.
