Inset: Kimarii McLemore. Background: The California resource center where Kimarii McLemore was shot and killed on her last day of carpentry school (KTVU/YouTube).
A California woman on her last day of carpentry school texted her mother about a suspicious car in the campus parking lot before turning up dead later that morning, according to cops and her family.
"This was not a random act," Oakland Police Chief James Beere told reporters after Kimarii McLemore, 25, was shot and killed at the Parker Community Resource Center in Oakland. "This is a very intentional crime," he said.
McLemore was attending what her family says was the final day of her adult education carpentry class at the Oakland community center when she was gunned down. Her loved ones told local Fox affiliate KTVU after the shooting that she had been scared of going to class due to an ongoing dispute with a male classmate.
"We actually have some really good leads," Beere told reporters, noting how investigators "spent some time with the family" after McLemore was killed and spoke to them about what happened.
McLemore's family says she texted her mother on the morning of the July 31 shooting and told her a suspicious car was lurking in the campus parking lot that had her frightened, KTVU reports. Her mom went to the school to check on her and "that's when she heard the rounds" go off, according to McLemore's aunt, Brittia Johnson.
"Her mom gave me a call and said they killed my baby, so I'm assuming she was shot, and before I got here, she was deceased," Johnson said. "I don't know who pulled the trigger, but I know she felt unsafe with the person in the class with her."
Police have declined to comment when asked about the relationship between McLemore and the classmate she allegedly had problems with.
"When she started, it was somebody in there that she didn't get along with," Johnson said. "She said they had conversed and they had squashed it."
Beere told reporters that while there are no suspects in custody, he is "fairly confident we'll get to the bottom of this" about catching McLemore's killer. "Our investigators have a lot of information," he said.
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