Predawn raids target Muslim bakery

Predawn raids target Muslim bakery
Not immediately known if related to slaying of Oakland reporter

Police said they recovered firearm evidence connected to the slaying of an Oakland journalist during a series of early morning raids Friday, including one at a bakery linked to a black Muslim group.

Colleagues said Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey, 57, had been working on a story about Your Black Muslim Bakery before he was ambushed and slain Thursday morning near the Alameda County courthouse in downtown Oakland.

"The search warrant yielded several weapons and other evidence of value including evidence linking the murder of Chauncey Bailey to members of the Your Black Muslim Bakery," Assistant Police Chief Howard Jordan said.

The pre-dawn raids followed a yearlong investigation into a variety of violent crimes, Jordan said.

Seven people were arrested, including the son of the bakery's founder, on charges including homicide, robbery and assault, Oakland police spokesman Roland Holmgren said. It was unclear whether those charges were tied to Bailey's slaying.

Joseph Debro, an Oakland businessman who writes a column for the Post, said Bailey had recently asked him for information about Your Black Muslim Bakery's financial troubles for a story Bailey was writing.

"To him it was just another story," Debro said. "He wasn't apprehensive or anxious about it at all. He said he was working on a bunch of stories and this was one."

Your Black Muslim Bakery was founded in 1968 by the late Yusuf Bey as a haven for struggling urban families. It sells natural baked goods alongside books by Malcolm X and other black leaders.

Bailey was a longtime reporter for the Oakland Tribune before becoming editor of the Post, a weekly newspaper geared toward the Bay Area black community, earlier this year. He had written stories for the Tribune about the bakery and its founder when Bey was facing rape charges in Alameda County. Most of those charges were later dropped, although one was still pending when Bey died in 2003.

Bey's son, Yusuf Bey IV, who was in custody Friday, took control of the original bakery and several franchises. In 2005, he was accused by police of being the ringleader in a group of black Muslims who smashed liquor bottles in Oakland corner stores and berated the Muslim owners for selling alcohol to the black community, because alcohol is forbidden by Islam.

Your Black Muslim bakery has been plagued with financial problems for several years, culminating in a bankruptcy filing last October.

In a declaration filed with the bankruptcy court on June 29, Yusuf Bey IV conceded he was "inexperienced in the business world," and had "received advice and consultation from those who had proven to me they did not have my best interests at heart."

Don Bolles, a reporter for the Arizona Republic, was the last reporter killed in the line of duty in the United States. He was killed by a car bomb in 1976 while reporting on organized crime.