Robert Anthony Blackwell III is due back in court Nov. 16 in the case over gunfire that struck an Oakland patrol car. No trial date has been set. At a Sept. 24 preliminary hearing, prosecutors pursued attempted-murder and assault-on-an-officer charges, according to The Mercury News.
The hearing centered in part on whether surveillance footage identified Blackwell and showed a real firearm. His attorney challenged those points and argued the evidence did not establish attempted murder. Judge Elena Condes found the shooting appeared intentional and the video appeared to implicate Blackwell, The Mercury News reported. Those findings concern the evidence presented at the preliminary hearing; the case has not gone to trial.
Officer Khatanbaatar Batzorig testified that gunfire hit his patrol car near Seminary and Kuhnle avenues; he was not injured, The Mercury News reported. Police said the shooting occurred around 12:30 a.m. on Feb. 10, 2025, after officers responded to a nearby multi-round ShotSpotter alert. At the time, police said Batzorig might have been targeted, CBS News reported.
A separate prior case
There is a documented earlier Oakland case involving Blackwell and gunfire at a police vehicle. The East Bay Times reported that, in a separate 2015 case, he was sentenced to 10 years for shooting at an occupied police car and was released within four years. That history is context about a prior case; it does not establish what happened in the current allegations.
