Suspect arrested after firing gun, threatening to shoot boy's mother in Berkeley

Posted: Dec 2, 2022 / 10:26 AM PST

Updated: Dec 2, 2022 / 10:26 AM PST

BERKELEY, Calif. (BCN)– A suspect was arrested Tuesday for shooting a gun in the air around multiple children after pointing it at a mother’s head, Berkeley police said Thursday. The suspect, 41-year-old Bay Point woman Tiffany Payne, approached a 5-year-old boy at 3:53 p.m. Aug. 29, in the 2200 block of Bonar Street in Berkeley and was bothering him, according to police.

The boy’s mother confronted the suspect, and the suspect pointed the gun at the mother’s head, police said. Then the suspect fired the gun into the air and said she could shoot the mom, too, according to police.

The woman fired the gun from a driveway between two apartment buildings adjacent to Strawberry Creek in the Poets Corner neighborhood. Detectives reviewed surveillance camera footage and spoke with witnesses before obtaining a warrant for the suspect’s arrest, police said.

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During a search of her home, detectives seized a loaded handgun that had been stolen in an Oakland robbery, according to police. The suspect was charged Wednesday by the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office with criminal threats, unlawfully firing a gun in a negligent manner, and among other offenses, willfully causing a child to suffer, police said.