• Occupy protestors outside San Quentin: SAN QUENTIN (AP) - As many as 700 peaceful Occupy demonstrators gathered outside San Quentin State Prison this afternoon as part of a nationwide effort to call for prison reform.

“It’s been an amazing day,” said Crystal Bybee, a spokeswoman for the local Occupy 4 Prisoners group. “We’ve had hundreds of people out here reading messages from prisoners and speaking out about issues that are important to us.”

Among the reforms protest organizers are calling for are elimination of solitary confinement, a ban on the death penalty and an end to California’s “three-strikes” law. The protest was one of about 15 taking place at prisons across the country today.

San Quentin was placed on lockdown in anticipation of the protest, with prisoners being kept in their cells. On-ramps and off-ramps from Interstate 580 at East Francisco Boulevard were closed during the protest.

The demonstration, outside the prison’s East Gate, ran from about noon to about 3:30 p.m. A spokesman for the Marin County Sheriff’s Office described the protest as peaceful.



• Man fatally attacked outside his Berkeley home: BERKELEY (AP) — A 23-year-old Alameda man is in jail on suspicion of murder after police say he fatally attacked another man outside the man’s home in the Berkeley hills.

Berkeley police Sgt. Mary Kusmiss said a woman called police Saturday night and reported that she and her husband had arrived home to find a stranger 

near their garage.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that 67-year-old Peter Cukor was attacked after he asked the man to leave. Cukor, the owner of a logistics consulting firm, died later in the hospital.

Kusmiss said an officer arrested Daniel Jordan Dewitt at a park about a block from the scene shortly after the attack. Dewitt, who matched a suspect description, suffers from mental illness, his mother told the newspaper.



• Oakland cop on leave for shooting robbery suspect: OAKLAND  (AP) — Oakland police say an officer has shot and wounded an armed robbery suspect.

Officer Johnna Watson, a police spokeswoman, said Monday that the shooting occurred after police stopped a vehicle with two passengers inside in East Oakland late Sunday night.

Watson said the officer wounded one passenger who fled from the vehicle and was armed with a gun. The suspect is listed in stable condition at a local hospital.

Police said the suspect did not fire his gun at the officer.

Police are also looking for the second suspect who fled from the scene in the car.

Watson said police would not provide details on what led up to shooting nor the names of the officer and the suspect citing an ongoing investigation.

The officer also has been placed on paid administrative leave.