Shoshana Walter/The Bay Citizen

A former Oakland deputy police chief who retired just before internal affairs investigators recommended his dismissal is working for Alameda County — and receiving a pension from the police department.

David Kozicki is now an Alameda County sheriff’s deputy, earning $86,000. That is in addition to the nearly $196,000 he is collecting from his Oakland pension.

Kozicki retired from the Oakland Police Department in March 2010, just before internal affairs investigators determined he was guilty of “gross dereliction of duty.” According to documents obtained by The Bay Citizen, the investigators recommended Kozicki be fired for failing to provide proper leadership on what became the deadliest day in the department’s history.

On March 21, 2009, a parolee named Lovelle Mixon shot and killed two Oakland police officers during a traffic stop. According to an independent inquiry, witnesses reported seeing Mixon enter an East Oakland apartment complex. But a police lieutenant who assumed command of the scene seemed to disregard those accounts and requested the SWAT team enter the apartment and clear the scene. About ninety minutes after the first officers arrived at the apartment, Kozicki arrived and approved the plan.

Two more officers were shot and killed when they entered the apartment. Police killed Lovelle Mixon after they raided the apartment.

“The enter-and-clear plan exhibited flaws, and it should have been terminated during a competent review by senior leaders,” the report said, detailing how the many lieutenants and commanders at the scene failed to follow procedures and coordinate and share information, leading to the flawed plan to enter the apartment.

“Bravery and courage under fire cannot ever be an acceptable substitute for sound procedures and officer safety,” the report said. “The hasty approval of this plan by the senior commanders compounded this error...The alternatives were dismissed with little or no discussion among the team members and command personnel.”

Those familiar with Kozicki's case say he was given an ultimatum – retire or be fired. At the time, Kozicki admitted the shootings played a role in his retirement, but insisted he was not being forced out.

“I don't know if I left on bad terms or good terms, it was just time for me to go,” Kozicki told The Bay Citizen Thursday. “Retire from PERS and get another job in another retirement system so I can start over in my retirement again. It's pretty common in public safety or public employment – you can retire at 50 and go get another public safety job.”

In the last five years in Oakland, at least three other police officers have retired before they were fired, a maneuver that some officers say is not uncommon.

Nor is it uncommon for officers who retire to begin collecting pension payments while working at another job, a practice known as “double dipping.”

Today, Kozicki remains a divisive figure among members of the Oakland police force, with some saying his failure to intervene led to the deaths of two officers, and others saying the shootings were outside of his control.

Kozicki insisted he had no knowledge of the outcome of the internal affairs investigation. And he said he's continually saddened by the deaths the officers, some of whom he had supervised and considered friends. He doesn't blame himself.

“I think there's only one person to blame for what happened that day, and that was Mixon,” he said. “It's unfortunate that the OPD thinks that they need to find fault in the way people conducted themselves that day. It was chaotic, hectic, and everyone conducted themselves professionally, including myself.”

On Thursday morning, hundreds crowded into the headquarters of the Oakland Police Department to mourn the deaths of 51 officers killed in the line of duty, including the four who died on the department’s darkest day: Officer John Hege, 41, of Concord; Sgt. Mark Dunakin, 40, of Tracy; and SWAT Sgts. Erv Romans, 43, of Danville and Daniel Sakai, 35, of Castro Valley.