Oakland: Suspected pimp was one-man crime spree, police allege
OAKLAND — A Sacramento County man has been linked to more than a dozen alleged crimes, including pimping two women, shooting a bystander in the neck during a rolling gun battle, and keeping a gun where a young girl could have accessed it.
Emiaj Williams, 21, has also been charged with resisting police and possessing stolen cars on multiple occasions. He faces charges on four different felony complaints, three of which were filed recently; authorities allege that most of the crimes occurred when Williams was out on bail in a car theft case.
Williams’ problems started last May when he was arrested on suspicion of possessing a Jeep that had been stolen out of San Jose, and failing to yield when officers attempted to pull him over. He posted $110,000 bail to secure his release from jail, but just three weeks later, he allegedly shot a man in the neck during a gunfight between two vehicles near 16th Avenue and East 12th Street in Oakland, according to court records.
It took police until October to identify Williams as the shooting suspect, after confirming that he was driving a Mercedes with a Utah license plate during the incident, according to authorities. During that investigation, police uncovered evidence Williams was pimping his ex-girlfriend after the two re-united in Los Angeles, and then a second sex worker came forward alleging that Williams was her pimp as well, according to court records.
When police located Williams in an Oakland motel and arrested him in the pimping and shooting cases, they found a firearm in the room, where a young child could have reached it, prosecutors allege. Williams allegedly claimed responsibility for everything in the room as he was being arrested.
Williams now faces charges of human trafficking, pimping, pandering, child abuse, shooting into an occupied motor vehicle, possessing stolen vehicles, and resisting police.
As for the other involved car in the June rolling gun battle, police are confident they’ve identified the involved parties as a man and a woman. The man has been charged with possessing a firearm he allegedly used to fire at Williams, and the woman has been charged with punching her 10-year-old daughter in the head during an unrelated incident, knocking out on of her baby teeth in the process, according to court records.