Man arrested in Hayward killing over dog sniffing
By Henry K. Lee
Updated 5:39 pm, Wednesday, October 30, 2013
San Francisco Chronicle
A sketch of the suspect wanted in connection with the fatal shooting of Thomas Cunningham, 38, in front of his 13-year-old daughter.
Photo: Courtesy Of Hayward Police Dept
A Vallejo man has been arrested and charged with murdering a man in Hayward in 2009 after taking exception to one of the victim’s dogs sniffing at his leg, authorities said Wednesday. [“Taking exception”? Is this a character in a Noel Coward play?]
Dereak Turner, 24, shot and killed Thomas Cunningham, 38, outside a liquor store near Vermont and B streets about 10 p.m. on Nov. 24, 2009, police said.
Cunningham had been walking home with his 13-year-old daughter after buying some ice cream.
Turner is being held without bail at Hayward City Jail. Alameda County prosecutors have charged him with murder and a gun enhancement.
Cunningham and his daughter had gone to the store to get ice cream and were walking home when they encountered Turner, who asked Cunningham to hold back his dogs — a 1-year-old German shepherd and a smaller dog — as he passed, authorities said.
[Turner didn’t “ask[ed] Cunningham to hold back his dogs.” He said something like, ‘You better keep them m’f’n dogs away from me, b — h!’]
Both dogs were off leash but were not behaving aggressively, investigators said.
Upset that the German shepherd had sniffed his leg, Turner exchanged words with Cunningham before shooting him twice with a handgun, police said. The daughter ran inside the liquor store for help, and Cunningham later died at a hospital.
[Lee is acting as though the dog “caused” the killing. Turner wasn’t “upset that the German shepherd had sniffed his leg”; he had to already have been looking for a pretext to murder a white.
Let’s take Lee’s insinuation seriously: If a dog sniffing the cuff of his pants were sufficient to send Turner into a homicidal rage, he would have murdered thousands of people by now. Every day, he would be encountering such outrages: White women who failed to disrobe and lie down in his path; Korean and Mexican store clerks who made him pay for his purchases, etc.]
Henry K. Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: Twitter: @henryklee