Polk Award Winner's Murder Linked to Bakery Thought to be a Front for Criminal Organization

Among the winners of the 2007 George Polk Awards is Chauncey W Bailey, Jr., an editor for The Oakland Post who was murdered in August for his reporting on a business thought to be the front for a criminal organization. Bailey was shot on August 2, 2007, while investigating the financial troubles of Your Black Muslim Bakery, which has been linked to several crimes, including kidnappings, rapes, and killings.

Devaughndre Broussard, a handyman at the bakery, has been accused of shooting Bailey as he walked to his office in downtown Oakland, CA. Broussard confessed to the murder but later recanted, saying he was coaxed into taking the fall by Yusuf Bey IV, who is CEO of the company and the son of bakery founder Yusuf Bey, as well as his spiritual advisor. He also claims to know the identity of the real killer and plans to reveal it during his trial.

Your Black Muslim Bakery was founded in Santa Barbara, California in 1968 and relocated to Oakland in 1971. Yusuf Bey, a follower of the Nation if Islam, sold baked goods made in accordance with the teachings of the Qur'an. He also appeared on an Oakland television show, True Solutions, where he broadcast sermons about racial issues, including an idea loosely based on the Mitchondrial Eve theory.

The bakery began seeing controversies during Bey's lifetime. In 1994, Akbar Bey, one of Yusuf Bey's 46 children, was shot and killed by a drug dealer. He had been charged with evading the police and carrying concealed weapons just three months earlier. That same year, two more of Yusuf Bey's sons, Nedir and Abaz, were involved in the torture of a Nigerian man a real estate deal. Two years after these incidents the City of Oakland loaned the bakery over $1 million to start a health care business. The business never materialized and the loan was never repaid. In 2003, when Yusuf Bey died of cancer he was awaiting trial on several rape counts.

Upon Bey's death, a violent struggle for control of the bakery emerged. Yusuf Bey had handpicked Waajid Bey as successor to the CEO position. Shortly after taking over the bakery, Waajid Bey mysteriously disappeared. His body was later found buried in a shallow grave near Oakland. The CEO position was then taken over by Antar Bey, who was also murdered shortly afterward in what police deemed a failed carjacking. Your Black Muslim Bakery then fell into the hands of Yusuf Bey IV.

Barely a month after becoming CEO, Yusuf Bey IV was one of several young men arrested for vandalizing two stores for selling alcohol to African-Americans. He has also twice been charged with fraud, first for scheming to buy a $55,000 Mercedes using false credit and identification information, then for using a fake driver's license to get credit to buy a $500,000 house. He had signed the documents for the house with the name Yasir Human. In April 2006, Bey was charged with assault for attempting to run over security guards at a strip club with his car after they threw him out of the establishment. He has also been linked to a double kidnapping and torture case, as well as a double homicide thought to be an attempt to cover up the kidnapping.

The bakery filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2006, with nearly $1 million in debt owed. The case was converted to Chapter 7 liquidation following the murder of Chauncey Bailey. In December 2006 the Alameda County Environmental Health Department inspected the bakery and found several major health code violations, grave enough to close the bakery if they were not immediately rectified. Your Black Muslim Bakery remained open, however, and there was no follow-up visit.

When Chauncey Bailey was murdered in August 2007, he had been investigating the financial state of Your Black Muslim Bakery, with Saleem Bey, a former bakery employee, as his source. Allegedly, Devaughndre Broussard had discovered Bailey's home address and followed the route he took to work. When he caught up with Bailey, he shot him three times at close range with a shotgun. Broussard was arrested the following day, as was Yusuf Bey IV and several others on various counts. Broussard was the only person charged with Bailey's murder. The health department finally closed the bakery after the raid uncovered rat droppings, dead rodents, and other waste and filth inside.

Saleem Bey had approached Bailey because he wanted as many people as possible to know the story of Your Black Muslim Bakery. He felt that the change in power of the bakery was a "hijacking" of control and that those managing the bakery were not representative of the Bey family. He also felt that the murders of Waajid and Antar Bey had not been thoroughly investigated and wanted the public to know as much about the story as possible. Saleem Bey had an agreement with Bailey that he would be an anonymous source, and that the story would be printed without a byline to assure the safety of both men, but word got out when Bailey mentioned the story to a colleague who was a friend of the Bey family. At the time of Bailey's death, the story had been laid out or publication but held back because his editor felt it needed named attribution. The story still has not been published.

Chauncey Bailey was honored posthumously with the 2007 George Polk Award for Local Reporting. He is the first journalist since 1993 to be the victim of a targeted killing in the United States.