Why Did Jamal Thomas Fatally Shoot His Neighbor?

Miles Armstead was trying to escape his harasser when he was killed. 

After months of torment by his neighbor paired with police ignoring dozens of his calls, Armstead decided to sell his family’s home. On May 1, 2020, he was doing yard work to prepare to list the property on the 7500 block of Ney Avenue in Oakland, Calif., when his neighbor, Jamal Thomas, approached him with a gun.

Thomas fired the weapon multiple times as Armstead, 44, ran away, prosecutors said at Thomas’s trial. Neighbors identified Thomas as the shooter and he was arrested at a motel more than seven hours after the shooting.

Armstead was a father of three children from a previous marriage, with a child on the way with Melina. He was a wealth manager at Fremont Bank, a soccer coach for his kids, a parent volunteer on school field trips and a hardworking parent, according to a GoFundMe made by a family friend.

In 2021, Melina Armstead, who was pregnant when her husband was killed, filed a lawsuit against the Alameda County and the City of Oakland, detailing law enforcement’s ignored pleas for help in the months leading up to the shooting.

The lawsuit alleged that, starting in December 2019, Thomas—who was living in Armstead’s neighboring house as a squatter after being evicted in August 2019—harassed and threatened the Armsteads, and in turn they called police for help at least 22 times. Each time Oakland Police were called, their response times became longer and their efforts lessened, according to the lawsuit. On at least one occasion, police did not respond for two days, the suit claims.

In December 2019, Thomas threw rocks through the windows of the Armstead house. Melina “sat in her living room holding her child in her arms, a large rock flew through the home’s bay front window, shattering the glass. Glass shards flew everywhere,” per the lawsuit. Melina was injured and had to seek medical attention. 

The couple called Oakland police and officers told Melina “there was nothing they could do about the rock throwing incident and considered it a simple incident of ‘vandalism.’” Thomas broke the family’s windows at least 14 additional times, according to the lawsuit. He was finally arrested on February 26, 2020, for making “terrorist threats” toward Miles Armstead after stating he would burn the Armsteads’ house down, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office said at the time. 

On February 28, Thomas was released on his own recognizance—meaning without posting bail and only signing an agreement that he would return to court—despite objections from prosecutors. “The judge released him over our strenuous objections,” Teresa Drenick of the Alameda County district attorney’s office said. Officer Alejandro Padilla later called Thomas a “chronic nuisance in his neighborhood.”

After one arrest, Thomas told police he would “be right back” and would “kill him next time,” according to court documents reviewed by The Mercury News. 

Then, on April 6, Thomas threw a brick at Armstead, just missing him. Oakland police issued an arrest warrant, but Thomas was not taken into custody until after he killed Armstead, nearly a month later.

It’s not clear why Thomas, who was convicted of a drunk driving charge in 2012 and unlawfully taking a vehicle in 1995, targeted Armstead and his family. Neighbor Louella Robinson told The San Francisco Chronicle the neighbors had “a little thing going between them.” “We don’t know what it was. Some kind of way I guess they fell out,” she continued.

“[Thomas] was a good kid, coming up and everything—that’s why everybody’s kind of in a state of shock,” Robinson said. “We [are] still kind of wondering what happened between them two.”

The city of Oakland asked the U.S. District Judge Laurel Beeler to dismiss Melina’s lawsuit, with attorneys arguing the city has no duty to protect individuals from third parties. Beeler dismissed some claims but rejected the city’s argument that it was immune from all liability. The judge concluded the city could be deemed negligent under a “state-created danger” doctrine.

In her decision, the judge cited times in which police officers at the Armsteads’ home allowed Thomas to hear them say that the department was understaffed, officers were overworked and that the family’s calls were not high priorities.

“The officers here allegedly emboldened Mr. Thomas by saying within earshot of him that they would do nothing,” Beeler wrote, adding that the police officers’ actions “increased the risk of harm.”

In the same filing, Beeler said the lawsuit failed to identify a policy or practice that caused the due-process violation and led to state-created danger, which is a prerequisite for advancing a civil rights claim against a government entity.

Armstead’s family was awarded $2.4 million in an October 2023 settlement. Civil rights attorney Adante Pointer told KTVU that the Oakland will pay $450,000 and Alameda County will pay $1.95 million. 

Thomas was convicted in July 2024 of first-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon and possession of a firearm by a felon with priors. The conviction also included a gun enhancement. A judge sentenced Thomas in April 2025 to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 28 years and eight months.

Melina said at the sentencing hearing that she found the parole option to be “beyond frustrating.” It feels very unfair,” she said. “It just shows how the law that’s meant to protect can deteriorate when politics get involved.”

Thomas is incarcerated at High Desert State Prison, approximately 200 miles northeast of Sacramento and a 90-minute drive from Reno, Nevada. 

High Desert State Prison has been open since 1995 and is a maximum-security prison designed to house people who have behavioral and management problems. The prison offers vocational programs, educational programs and work assignments for those inmates who want to participate, though it’s unknown if Thomas is involved with any programs or jobs.

Thomas, now 49, is eligible for parole in February 2040.