Speedy plea deal for brothers, Berkeley gun case dropped
The Alameda County DA's office dismissed multiple felony charges against both men just one week after filing a case against them.
Two brothers from Berkeley had their felony gun charges dropped Friday as part of a plea deal for a parole violation, court papers show.
Berkeley detectives had been investigating one of the men for months, setting up a surveillance operation after he became a person of interest in a shooting.
In recent weeks, police arrested the pair at a West Oakland apartment complex and found a hidden gun loaded with armor-piercing bullets, according to court papers.
On June 13, brothers Brian and Selim Bourdoud were charged with multiple felonies as part of the new gun case.
Just a week later, however, those charges were all dismissed in a plea deal that gave each of the brothers a parole violation.
The violation will see Brian Bourdoud spend a few months at Santa Rita Jail before he is released from custody, court papers show.
Read more court coverage on The Scanner.
The disposition of Selim's case was not available as of publication time but likely will be similar.
Brothers "associate with South Berkeley gangs"
On Nov. 5, 2023, a Berkeley police officer stopped Brian Bourdoud, 27, after spotting him driving an SUV without a license plate, according to court papers.
He "was visibly nervous," police wrote. His "hands were shaking and he continuously looked through his front windshield as if he was looking for an escape route."
When police asked him to step out of the vehicle, Bourdoud instead turned on the SUV and fled into Oakland. Police were unable to catch him.
In court papers, a detective said he believed Bourdoud had fled because he had a gun with him.
Body-cam footage showed Bourdoud with a satchel across his chest, according to police. BPD wrote that the bags "are common storage carriers for handguns."
When Bourdoud fled, he left his California ID card with Berkeley police.
In court papers, police wrote that Brian Bourdoud and his younger brother, Selim, were known through prior contacts with BPD, including from "a series of gang-related shootings" in Berkeley in 2020.
Both brothers "associate with South Berkeley gangs," BPD wrote.
Police said that Brian Bourdoud has an "extensive criminal history" and is on parole for an attempted carjacking conviction.
BPD began looking into him again in March as a "person of interest" in a shooting at Fairview and Harper streets that sent a man to the hospital with a gunshot wound to the back.
Emilie Raguso
As a result of a months-long investigation, Berkeley detectives determined that he was staying in an apartment complex on 30th Street in West Oakland, according to court papers.
On June 11, they arrested him there during a search warrant operation.
As it happened, 23-year-old Selim Bourdoud was also at the apartment during the arrest.
BPD noted that it took 35 minutes for the brothers to come outside "despite repeated commands to exit and multiple phone calls" from police.
When BPD searched the apartment, officers found a Ruger pistol "hidden within the cover to a couch cushion," police wrote.
The gun "was wet as if it had been submerged in water," according to BPD.
It was loaded with 15 armor-penetrating rounds in the magazine and also had a round in the chamber, BPD wrote.
The brothers "denied any knowledge" of the gun and said their DNA would not be on it, police wrote.
The men were arrested that day in connection with gun possession as well as active warrants, according to court papers.
Police also searched Selim's address — his parents' home on Russell Street in southwest Berkeley — and found two high-capacity magazines as well as "ammunition of various calibers" in his bedroom, according to court papers.
On June 13, the Alameda County DA's office charged Brian Bourdoud with felony evasion from the November stop and firearm possession from the recent search.
Selim Bourdoud was charged, as part of the same case, with possession of the gun and ammunition, according to court papers.
Charging papers noted Brian Bourdoud's 2017 conviction for attempted carjacking, which sent him to prison, as well as Selim Bourdoud's shooting conviction and a burglary conviction from 2019 that sent him to prison.
The Berkeley shooting in 2020, which sent a teenager to the hospital, resulted in probation last year after a plea deal before Judge Elena Condes, according to court papers.
On Friday, June 20, all of the new charges against both men were dropped as part of a plea deal negotiated by the prosecution and defense.
The brothers were each found by Judge David Pereda to have violated the terms of their parole.
As a result, Brian Bourdoud was sentenced to 180 days at Santa Rita Jail to be served at half-time with 18 days credit for time served already.
The disposition for Selim Bourdoud's case is not yet listed. He remains in custody at Santa Rita Jail, according to booking records.
No future court dates were listed for either man as of publication time.
