OAKLAND — In the most recent case of violence in a neighborhood generally known as “The Blade” with a high rate of prostitution, an Oakland man has been charged with pointing a gun to a lady's head, striking her with the weapon after which running to a BMW where a female companion was waiting.

Clarence “C-Money” Brown III, 29, was charged with assault with a deadly weapon, pimping and illegal possession of a firearm. He is being held without bail on the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin. A preliminary hearing is scheduled to start Tuesday.

The alleged attack occurred near International Boulevard and thirteenth Avenue in Oakland, an area generally known as a hangout for sex staff that has been the topic of several recent violent crime investigations. Just a block away, several adult sex staff and teenagers were charged with stabbing and beating a person to death during an argument there in March. In April, a person was charged with stabbing a sex employee he picked up on International Boulevard while out on bail for allegedly shooting a person with a pellet gun on a golf course.

On the night of May 30, undercover Oakland Police Department detectives conducting surveillance and witnessed Brown hit a lady with a pistol and put the gun to her head, then allegedly threw her against the door of a liquor store and fled to a 2013 BMW where a lady was waiting.

Officers said in court documents that they gave chase, but the girl – later identified by police as 34-year-old Brittany Rivera – sped off and fled. The California Highway Patrol arrested Brown the subsequent day. When Rivera appeared at an Oakland courthouse on June 5 to attend Brown's arraignment, she was also arrested and later charged with accessory after the actual fact. She has since posted bail, records show.

Brown was banned from owning guns partly because he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 2018. The conviction stemmed from a tragic 2017 accident that killed Brown's 5-year-old daughter, Neveah Brown, and Brown's boyfriend, 23-year-old Dion Christy, in line with court records and media reports. He was later sentenced to 4 years in prison.

When Brown was arrested, he denied being involved within the pimping and claimed he hit the girl with a pellet gun – not an actual firearm – because she was rude to him, police said. Authorities say investigators searched Brown's phone and located conversations with Rivera by which they allegedly discussed hiring the girl as a pimp, teaching her “the ins and outs” of prostitution and the necessity to “save every penny so we can move.”

Rivera also spoke to police and said she drove away to avoid having the BMW impounded for expired registration. According to authorities, she denied seeing Brown do anything illegal.