According to local media reports, Wayl Aljunaidi, 23, of Oakland, was shot just before 11 pm last night at 3326 Foothill Boulevard in the Fruitvale neighborhood of Oakland. He died at Highland Hospital at 3:15 am this morning.

Based on a quick check at Google Maps Street View, it looks like it was just outside the Tamales Mi Lupita taco truck, which was featured earlier this summer on Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations.”

The Oakland Tribune reports:

Investigators say the man was approached by a group of men, and one of them shot him.

He died at Highland Hospital at 3:15 a.m. today.

Robbery may have been a motive, said Oakland police Officer Jason Andersen, but it has not been determined if anything was taken from the man.

His death marks the city’s 92nd homicide of the year. Last year at this time, there had been 107.

Tragically, this is by no means the first killing at a taco truck in Oakland. Abel Martinez Mejia was killed in January 2008 when he was buying tacos at 85th St and San Leandro Ave. His murderers were sentenced to life in prison earlier this year.

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On Thursday, he had been announced as the fifth suspect in a bunch of taco truck armed robberies, most of which took place late in the evening between April 5 and June 27, 2009. The targeted trucks were mainly along Olympic Boulevard, Cesar Chavez Avenue and Whittier Boulevard, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Spanish-language channel Telemundo noted that they were suspected of taking an estimated $7,000.

All five were part of the Fearless Kings (FLK) tagger crew, who, according to La Opinión, had been hoping to use the robbery as a way to “elevate” their status from mere taggers.

At least four other members of the crew have been arrested Thursday in connection with the robberies: Samuel Razo, 20; Miguel Torres, 21, Julio Osuna, 21; and Jesse Moreno, 18.

But what’s most interested about this case is that it relied heavily on the cooperation of the new Associación de Loncheros, the Times adds.

[The Association's Alfredo] Magallanes said the truck vendors did not report the crimes right away because they were under the false impression that a county ordinance prohibiting catering trucks from parking in one spot for more than an hour was still in effect. The ordinance, however, was overturned only months after it was passed in April by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

But Magallanes said some police officers are still implementing the former ordinance. Fearing further problems with police and possibly retaliations from members of the tagging crew, the truck vendors instead did not initially report the crimes.

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Abel Martinez Mejia was buying lunch at a taco truck on the corner of 85th St. and San Leandro Ave. in East Oakland, when he was killed in an attempted robbery. Out of solidarity with a fellow taco lover, I donated $10 to his family.

Fortunately the murderers Darryl Hill, 22, and Deandre Hill, 19, who perpetrated this heinous crime were convicted in October on charges of first-degree murder with the special circumstance of committing murder during the course of a robbery.

Last week, according to a report in Bay City News:

Alameda County Superior Court Judge C. Don Clay sentenced Darryl Hill, who shot Martinez Mejia five times, to life in prison without the possibility of parole plus another 25 years to life and sentenced Deandre Hill to life in prison plus 11 years.

I think that these scum should also be sentenced to life without tacos, from trucks or otherwise. Good riddance.

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Update: Apparently these guys are “serial taco truck robbers” ?

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Spokesman Review:

A federal charge of impersonating an FBI agent has been filed against a multiple-time felon accused of extorting cash and taking the taco trailer used as the source of income for a Spokane businessman facing deportation.

In addition to the federal charge, Marwan Abdullah Nasser faces a state charge for allegedly kidnapping the son of taco vender Carlos Zuniga to back up extortion demands.

The self-employed businessman, who operated the popular “Tacos Tumbras” in Spokane and Spokane Valley, was told he could avoid deportation to Mexico and remain in Spokane if he paid cash bribes to a man he was told was an FBI agent, court documents say.

Zuniga, briefly detained last summer on pending civil deportation charges, later was introduced to Nasser by local Hispanic activist Carmella LeBlanc “who told Carlos (Zuniga) that Nasser was with the FBI,” the documents allege.

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