Man arrested in threats to City Hall employee
Suspect had gone to Mayor Dellums' office looking for a job
By Heather MacDonald , STAFF WRITER - OAKLAND TRIBUNE
Article Last Updated: 03/17/2007 02:47:15 AM PDT
OAKLAND — A 26-year-old man was arrested Friday morning on suspicion of making criminal threats against a member of Mayor Ron Dellums' staff after he created a disturbance outside the mayor's City Hall office, police said.
Ronald Nalls, who has lived in Dublin and Oakland, went to the mayor's office seeking a job with the city after volunteering in Dellums' transition office, said Karen Stevenson, a spokeswoman for the mayor.
Nalls is on probation for disturbing the peace and making criminal threats, officials said.
He ran errands and stuffed envelopes for the mayor's transition team, said Stevenson, who added that he had been
pleasant and had caused no problems.
While Nalls was waiting to see a member of the staff in the office's small reception area around 11 a.m., several women arrived for an appointment. He verbally abused the women and refused to leave after being told to come back at 1 p.m., Stevenson said.
Dellums was not in his office at the time, Stevenson said.
The women became fearful, and a volunteer in the mayor's office, Chase Smith, was asked to intervene, and security was called. Nalls, yelling and refusing to leave, became increasingly agitated, he said.
"He was using profanity," Smith said.
A police officer on patrol in downtown Oakland responded to the call and escorted an uncooperative Nalls out of the building and arrested him after he threatened to assault a member of the mayor's staff.
Dellums said he was working to set aside a number of city jobs for ex-felons in an effort to set an example for private businesses and address the root causes of crime in Oakland.
Stevenson said she would ask members of the mayor's task force on the reintegration of incarcerated individuals to help Nalls and perhaps offer him some mental health services.
