A man described by police as a drug dealer was arrested for investigation of murder in the death of Huey P. Newton but claimed self-defense in killing the Black Panther founder, police said Friday.
Tyrone Robinson, 25, of Oakland was arrested on a weapons charge around 7 p.m. Tuesday, hours after Newton's predawn murder on a west Oakland sidewalk, and investigators retrieved the weapon used in Newton's killing, police said.Robinson "considered the murder a means to advance" in the Black Guerilla Family, a narcotics distribution gang, said Sgt. Dan Mercado at a early evening news conference at the Oakland Hall of Justice.
The Black Guerilla Family is a prison-based gang that operates in the state's maximum-security lockups, including San Quentin, where Newton has served time, authorities said.
Robinson admitted to the killing early Friday, Mercado said.
Mercado said Newton argued with Robinson over a cocaine deal and that Robinson then shot the 47-year-old former leader of the black militancy movement in the 1960s.