Behind Toddler’s Death, a Drug Dealer’s Story
Narcotics culture became the norm at the site of Oakland murder
For many years, Robert Hudson and more than a dozen men gathered early each morning at the corner of 65th Avenue and International Boulevard in East Oakland to sell drugs.
Hudson’s lengthy career as a neighborhood crack dealer is detailed in hundreds of pages of court records. He was an obscure cog in Oakland’s violent narcotics trade until the afternoon of Aug. 8, when two men spotted him near his usual corner and opened fire, wounding him and a friend.
The shooting might have been dismissed as another episode of drug-related violence, except that one bullet also struck 3-year-old Carlos Nava in the neck. He bled to death on the sidewalk.
The killing of Carlos, known as Carlitos, was regarded as a tipping point for Oakland, the most prominent of 80 homicides this year. Police Chief Anthony Batts called a department-wide tactical alert and his depleted department worked overtime to arrest the shooter and the driver; both face murder charges and have denied their involvement.
For a time, a memorial replaced the drug dealers at 65th and International. Through donations and weekend car washes, residents raised $20,000 for Carlitos’ family. City officials vowed to end the bloodshed and the boy’s father, Carlos Nava, a busboy, told mourners, “My son gave up his life to end the violence.”
But as the outrage and promises fade, the story of Hudson and his path from career drug dealer to the intended target in Carlitos Nava’s murder shows how a drug culture and the violence that comes with it become embedded in a community.
In explaining the murder, the police have described the shooting as gang-related. A spokeswoman declined to disclose the names of the gangs, but other officers said Hudson was a member of a local gang known as the 65 Ville.
The alleged assailants, Lawrence Denard and Willie Torrence, were from nearby 69th Avenue, the police said.
Hudson, 37, was shot in the stomach and now uses a walker. He declined comment through friends.
Hudson was essentially a local merchant here, no less so than Mondo Khalid, owner of the All-Mart convenience store, which Carlitos and his mother had just left when the boy was shot, and the proprietors of the neighborhood barbershop, according to residents and court records.
From 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Hudson was among the dealers selling crack and heroin on the bustling street corner, where alcoholics and addicts hustle for change to buy dollar beers at Khalid’s store and groups of older men and women, some in wheelchairs, gather around green bus benches as children and families return home from school and work.
Residents said that Hudson was considered an O.G., or original gangster. Tall, muscular and stoic, at least a decade older than many of the young men selling drugs in the neighborhood, he had survived other shootings, they said.
Three years ago, when Khalid took over the All-Mart, men were selling drugs from inside the store, he said. Khalid took the men aside and asked them politely to move down the block.
“I told them, ‘I’ve got money to make and you’ve got money to make,’” he said. “If we’re clashing, it’s not good for anybody.”
After a few confrontations, he said, the group moved to 65th and International, less than a block away, near a Little Caesar’s pizzeria and a smoke shop. Many dealers, including Hudson, became friends and regular customers of Khalid, who is from Yemen, and helped Khalid win the trust of his neighbors.
Like many residents, Khalid said he hated the violence, but accepted the reality of the drug trade. “They come in here, they’re respectful, they’re cool,” Khalid said. “Who am I to look down on somebody who picks up cans and takes them to recycling? Picks up crack and sells it to crack fiends? That’s their business.”
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