Last Wednesday, Marvin Boomer and his partner Nina Woodruff went for an evening walk, strolling along E. 21st Street in their Oakland neighborhood.

As they neared 12th Avenue, Woodruff started feeling nervous. Police sirens were blaring and headed their way. She could “feel the energy,” she told Boomer.

She thought they should walk up the stairs of a house on the corner to gain some distance from the street.

What happened next is a blur.

“All I remember is taking maybe two, maybe three steps up, and then I blacked out from there,” she recalled in an interview Thursday with The Oaklandside.

When she came to, she saw Boomer’s body near her. People were gathering around them, a geyser spewed from a broken fire hydrant, and blood was everywhere.

“Baby, please get up,” she pleaded with Bo

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