R.I.P. CHAUNCEY!

Chauncey Bailey, editor of the Oakland Post and a former reporter for the Oakland Tribune, was slain by a masked gunman on a downtown Oakland street Thursday, police said.

Bailey, 57, was shot shortly before 7:30 a.m. on 14th Street near Alice Street while walking to work, police said. Paramedics were unable to revive Bailey, an outspoken advocate for the black community and an unabashed critic of corruption.

Witnesses told police a lone, masked gunman dressed in dark clothing approached Bailey, shot him once in the back and once in the head and ran away. One news account said the assailant got into a van that drove away, but Jordan said police have not been able to confirm that a van was used or that anyone else participated in the killing.

The spot where Bailey was killed is across the street from a preschool, across a parking lot from a post office and around the corner from a community arts center. No one at Starlight Child Development Center saw anything, although a couple of teachers heard gunshots.

"He was very controversial," said Derrick Nesbitt, who worked with Bailey on a cable access channel called "Soul Beat" from 1997 to 2004. "He was tenacious and would not let people off the hook, whether he was reporting on corruption in city government, the entertainment business or among rappers. He ruffled a lot of feathers because of it."

He said he asked Bailey several years ago if he had ever feared for his safety because of his probing into corruption or gang violence. Bailey said he had received threats but had shrugged them off.

Bailey was fired from the Tribune in 2005 for ethics violations, according to several former colleagues. He went on to work for the Post as a freelance foreign correspondent, covering stories in Vietnam and Haiti, and was named editor of the publication in June.