Rodeo rapper charged after San Leandro officer shot at him

SAN LEANDRO — A Bay Area rapper has been charged with possessing an assault rifle in public, but hasn’t been charged with using it to assault an officer, which authorities claimed he did after a San Leandro police officer fired at him, court records show.

CaRonn Patterson, 18, of Rodeo, was charged with felony counts of possessing an assault weapon and having a loaded gun in public, as well as a misdemeanor hit-and-run charge. He has pleaded not guilty and was released from jail after posting $50,000 bail, records show.

Patterson, who raps under the stage name Keef68x, is set to have a preliminary hearing in March. He was not injured in the Jan. 19 incident, when San Leandro police say an officer fired at him during a foot chase after watching him turn toward the officer with the rifle in hand near the railroad tracks on the 800 block of Davis Street. No one was struck by the gunfire and Patterson continued to run before being arrested near a business on the 1600 block of Alvarado Street.

Under state law, pointing a gun at someone can be prosecuted as an assault with a deadly weapon, and police wrote in court records they saw “probable cause” to arrest him on suspicion of assaulting a peace officer. But prosecutors haven’t filed that charge.

Police say they were attempting to pull Patterson over for an alleged moving violation when he drove off and led officers on a brief chase that ended when he crashed near Davis and Alvarado streets, according to court records.

Since turning 18 last July, Patterson has been arrested three times, including a November arrest on suspicion of gun possession, and an arrest in Placer County, also involving alleged gun possession.

Police haven’t released body camera footage of the shooting.

In the Placer County incident, police say they responded to a rowdy party at an AirBnB rental where there were signs of forced entry and blood on the front door. Several people were arrested, including a man who allegedly drove there in a Dodge Charger with two obvious bullet holes, and a minor who had a gun on him, authorities said.

Patterson was arrested on suspicion of child endangerment and illegal gun possession.