Mark Demetrious Sanders, 27, was booked in Santa Rita Jail on Jan. 2, 2024. Sanders is the suspect in the Dec. 29 killing of Oakland police Officer Tuan Le during a cannabis business burglary. (Photo Courtesy of the Alameda County Sheriff's Office)
OAKLAND — A Stockton man who police have named as a suspect in the killing of Officer Tuan Le has a prior manslaughter conviction in connection with a 2014 shootout that killed an 18-year-old man, according to court documents and multiple law enforcement sources.
Mark Demetrious Sanders, 27, was booked Tuesday into Santa Rita Jail on suspicion of killing Le, pending a review by the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office to potentially file charges. Police have identified Sanders as the man who allegedly opened fire into an unmarked police car containing Le, who was on an undercover detail monitoring a Dec. 29 early morning burglary in progress at a cannabis business.
But court records show it’s not Sanders’ first time being arrested on suspicion of homicide. In April 2014, when Sanders was just 17, the U.S. Marshals arrested him in Modesto in connection with the killing of 18-year-old Marcellus Perry.
Perry was killed during a February 2014 shootout near Bancroft and 77th avenues, involving multiple gunmen. In 2015, Sanders pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter in juvenile court, was sentenced to more than 10 years, but released within five, according to law enforcement sources.
Authorities allege that at around 4:30 a.m. on Dec. 29, Sanders, along with 30-year-old Sebron Russell, 28-year-old Allen Starr Brown, and at least one other person — a 34-year-old man who was detained but not booked into jail — burglarized a cannabis business on the 400 block of Embarcadero. Le, who had responded to a break-in at the same location hours earlier, was in an unmarked police vehicle that was leaving the facility’s parking lot when one of the burglars opened fire, striking Le in the head.
Russell was arrested Jan. 1 on suspicion of second-degree burglary, and Brown — who police believe was in the suspects’ vehicle, possibly as the driver — was booked Sunday on suspicion of murder. As of early Wednesday afternoon, none of the three suspects have been charged, nor has the 34-year-old man, who was detained in San Francisco so police could search his vehicle after cellphone records placed him at the scene of the break-in, authorities said.
Sanders, who in recent years has had addresses in Vallejo, Oakland and Stockton, was arrested Tuesday in Livermore. Police say they placed Le’s handcuffs on him during the booking process.
In 2021, Russell, Sanders and the 34-year-old man were arrested and charged in Contra Costa County with burglarizing a Pittsburg home. They pleaded no contest to burglary in 2022 and each received a six-month jail term and two years probation, court records show.
The probation term was still active when Le was killed.
Le — who worked on a burglary suppression unit — was on plainclothes detail on Dec. 29, in response to reported break-ins at local dispensaries. He and other plainclothes officers observed the 4:30 a.m. break-in from an unmarked pickup truck. They put the vehicle in reverse shortly before at least one of the burglars opened fire at them. Le later died at Highland Hospital surrounded by family and fellow Oakland officers.
He was the 54th Oakland police officer killed in the line of duty over the department’s 160-year history, and the first in 14 years.
Originally published at Nate Gartrell