The man accused of killing a state parole officer inside an East Oakland office building last week has an extensive criminal history dating back nearly 30 years, according to court documents filed this week by the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office.
Bryan Keith Hall, 48, has been charged with eight felonies in the shooting death of parole agent Joshua Byrd, according to the criminal complaint filed by Assistant District Attorney Brian Owens.
Hall’s charges include murder, car theft, robbery and being a felon in possession of a gun. Also, he’s facing several special allegations, including that he killed a law enforcement officer and several gun enhancements.
If convicted, he would be on his third strike and could spend the rest of his life in prison.
The complaint also reveals that Hall has at least 10 prior convictions dating back to a 1996 robbery case in Alameda County.
His last conviction was in January for assault with a deadly weapon, with prior cases involving car theft, evading police, selling crack cocaine, assault and being a felon in possession of a gun in Alameda, Contra Costa and Stanislaus counties over the years.
In his latest case, Hall is accused of killing Byrd about 12:50 p.m. Thursday inside the Division of Adult Parole Operations at 7717 Edgewater Drive in Oakland.
Hall was arrested a few hours after the shooting about three miles away at 90th Avenue and International Boulevard.
Byrd, 40, was immediately transported to Highland Hospital in Oakland, where he died from his injuries.
Neither prosecutors, Oakland police nor California Department of Corrections officials have disclosed the circumstances surrounding the shooting nor have they released a possible motive.
Hall was on parole after pleading down from attempted murder to assault with a deadly weapon after allegedly stabbing a stranger in the neck, according to former Alameda County district attorney Pamela Price.
Price said Hall was offered the deal after she left office in December 2024 following a recall election.
“Due to the long delays in processing cases like these in the Alameda County Superior Courts, Mr. Hall had already served the maximum time of his sentence and he was released directly to parole,” Price said.
Byrd joined the Department of Corrections as a cadet at the officer academy in 2014. After serving as a correctional officer and being promoted to correctional sergeant in 2020 at the California Medical Facility, he joined the Division of Adult Parole Operations as a parole agent in October last year.
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