Woman heartbroken over husband's shooting death in Oakland
OAKLAND, Calif. - The widow of a man shot and killed in front of her in Oakland's Pill Hill neighborhood on Christmas Eve said she is still more than heartbroken.
"It's like all shattered, all through my body, like I'm shaking all the time," Tanya Mixon said on Monday.
Mixon's husband, 50-year-old Marlon Jones, was shot and killed outside their apartment complex near 28th Street and Telegraph Avenue. She witnessed the incident.
"That's the most devastating thing in the world to happen to me, because that's my husband," she said, tears streaming down her face."He took care of me. He loved me like nobody ever loved me, you know. He treated me like a wife should be treated."
The fatal shooting happened just after midnight on Dec. 24. Jones had just returned home after getting groceries. His wife joined him in their Lexus when someone walked up behind him as he was checking the vehicle identification number (VIN) for insurance purposes.
She says her husband greeted the man with a casual, "What's up?"
But the man then retorted, "What the f — you say, n—? I will kill you.' And pulled out the gun and shot my husband," she said.
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Oakland police and paramedics came quickly, but Jones, who everybody called "Mac Lynn," died at the scene. The motive for the shooting remains unknown.
The couple had been married since 2017, but were together off and on for more than three decades, surviving homelessness, COVID, and other challenges. Her kids called him "Papa."
"My husband was a giving person, you know? He would help anybody. It didn't matter who it was, no race, no nothing, he was just like a genuine person," said Mixon.
A neighbor, who wished to withhold their identity, said Jones was well known in the area.
"It's like very shocking. We are very surprised that it happened around here," he said.
He said Jones was "Very easy-going, quiet. He helped everybody. You ask anybody in the neighborhood about him, they'd tell you the same thing I'm telling you."
Mixon says she wants to move out, not knowing if she, too, could be in danger, after her husband was killed.
"It's like surreal. It's horrible. and I just hope they find whoever did it because it don't make no sense," she said.
Henry Lee is a KTVU crime reporter. E-mail Henry at Henry.Lee@fox.com and follow him on Twitter @henrykleeKTVU and www.facebook.com/henrykleefan