UPS employee charged in recent Oakland homicide

OAKLAND — A 42-year-old man has been arrested and charged with fatally shooting a man outside a fast food restaurant, after police identified him from surveillance footage, according to court records.

James Wheeler, of Oakland, was charged Tuesday with murdering Johnny James Johnson Jr. in a Taco Bell parking lot in Oakland on Nov. 21. Wheeler, an employee of UPS, was seen on video inside the Taco Bell wearing UPS clothing, and was later identified by one of his managers, authorities said.

Wheeler has also been charged with shooting into an occupied vehicle and two counts of being a felon in possession of firearms. He was barred from possessing guns due to convictions for robbery in 2004 and assault in 2001, court records show.

Johnson, whose age and city of residence were not immediately available, was shot and killed at around 11:30 a.m. in the parking lot, which is on the 6900 block of Bancroft Avenue in Oakland. He was sitting in the driver’s seat of his maroon Nissan Murano when Wheeler allegedly ran up, shot him several times, and ran away.

Police say the two had an argument roughly 45 minutes between the shooting, and that the Nissan was seen circling a UPS truck Wheeler was standing next to. Police haven’t said what the confrontation was about. Wheeler was assisting another UPS worker at the time of the altercation, and fled the scene in his own vehicle, authorities say.

Wheeler was arrested in Berkeley on Monday afternoon, and police say they found a loaded firearm under the driver’s side mat of his vehicle. He was booked into Santa Rita Jail in Dublin later that day, with “prisoner” listed as his occupation on the jail form. He is being held without bail.

Wheeler is next due in court on Dec. 12 to enter a plea, court records show.