California Parole Officer Is Shot, Killed in East Oakland Office Building

Updated at 4:45 p.m.

A suspect is in custody after a California parole agent was fatally shot while working in an East Oakland office building on Thursday, the California Highway Patrol said.

Parole Agent Joshua Lemont Byrd with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation was shot and killed inside the Division of Adult Parole Operations office in Oakland just before 12:50 p.m.

According to the CHP, Oakland police officers responded and immediately brought Byrd to a hospital, where he died of his injuries.

The suspect, identified as Bryan Keith Hall of Oakland, fled and was later apprehended near 90th Avenue and International Boulevard, about two miles from the office, the CHP said.

Hall was booked into Santa Rita Jail late Thursday and is set to be arraigned on a first-degree murder charge on Monday morning.

A motive for the shooting remained unclear as of Friday,

Byrd’s death is the first line-of-duty fatality of a CDCR officer since 2018, the department said.

“This is a heartbreaking loss,” Gov. Gavin Newsom and Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, who is acting as governor while Newsom is out of the state, said in a statement on Thursday evening. “Agent Byrd served with integrity and courage — and we’re forever grateful. We are keeping his family in our prayers and we join the men and women of CDCR in mourning this tragedy.”

Byrd, 40, joined CDCR in 2014 as a cadet in its correctional officer academy and served as a correctional officer and sergeant before joining the department’s Oakland parole office in October. He previously served in the U.S. Navy.

“Our hearts are heavy as we remember Parole Agent Joshua Byrd, whose bravery and dedication led to his tragic death in the line of duty,” CDCR Secretary Jeff Macomber said in a statement. “We extend our deepest condolences to the law enforcement community, as well as to Agent Byrd’s family and friends.”

Newsom ordered flags at the California Capitol complex to be flown at half-staff in Byrd’s honor.

Hall has been arrested numerous times over the last 30 years according to court records obtained by the East Bay Times. He was sentenced most recently in February for stabbing a man in the neck in an apparently random assault near Lake Merritt in 2022. In that case, a judge granted him pre-sentence credit for time served locally while awaiting sentencing and released him the same day on parole, according to CDCR.

On Thursday evening, law enforcement officers from multiple agencies waited outside Highland Hospital to pay tribute to Byrd. They joined a solemn procession as his casket, draped in an American flag, was carried to a coroner’s van.

Byrd’s body was driven Friday afternoon from Oakland to a funeral home in Sacramento, as law enforcement officers joined the procession and lined freeway overpasses to salute the fallen officer.

“His passing is a profound loss for his family, his colleagues, and the entire public safety communication,” Neil Flood, president of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, said in a statement Thursday. “This tragic loss is a painful reminder of the real dangers our members face each day, whether inside facilities or in communities throughout the state.”