Man Calls Mom After He Was Reported Dead - Yahoo! News

Man Calls Mom After He Was Reported Dead - Yahoo! News:

OAKLAND, Calif. - Anthony Sheppard shocked his mother this week with a telephone call, a day after he was reported dead. "When he called me I thought I was talking to a ghost," said Verna McCowan.

Oakland police on Tuesday bungled the identification of a man shot to death after finding Sheppard's identification card on the victim. Authorities alerted his mother of the shooting, and released the details to reporters.

Sheppard, 23, said he was shocked when he walked up to a group of friends on Wednesday who were crying while reading a newspaper account of his death.

The dead man was later determined to be Mark Martin, 26, of Oakland, who was identified by fingerprints. No suspects were arrested. Sheppard told authorities he had lost his identification card several years ago.

Alameda County Sheriff's spokesman Lt. Jim Knudsen said Thursday that police provided coroner's officials with the man's identification. No fingerprints were initially taken, and Sheppard's family was alerted.

"A day or two later, the mother calls and says, 'I just talked to my son,'" Knudsen said. "We're human and we feel sorry for what happened."