Rachel Swan & Joel Umanzor

Oct. 28, 2022

Oakland police said Friday that they arrested two people they believe were responsible for the death of Lili Xu, a 60-year-old dentist killed in August during what was described at the time as an attempted robbery.

The longtime partner of a 60-year-old dentist killed in Oakland’s Little Saigon in August was arrested in her slaying, but hours after he was locked up on Friday, he died by suicide at Santa Rita jail.

Oakland police said earlier in the day that the slaying of Lili Xu that they believed occurred during a street robbery was actually a murder-for-hire in which 73-year-old Nelson Chia of Oakland hired someone to carry out the killing.

Police arrested Chia and 33-year-old Hasheem Bason of Stockton in the case.

“I appreciated and loved her,” Chia had told ABC7 news reporter Dion Lim in an interview on Aug. 22, breaking down in sobs as he described how the couple was attacked a day earlier as they pulled over in Oakland’s Little Saigon neighborhood.

Surveillance video distributed by Oakland police showed the crime occurred with breathtaking speed on a bright Sunday afternoon. In a span of 9 seconds, a Lexus pulled up to the vehicle Xu was in, an assailant hopped out of the rear passenger side, ran around to where Xu had just exited, seemed to shove her on the sidewalk, shot her, jumped back in the Lexus and sped away.

Chia was expected to be arraigned on Nov. 1 at Oakland’s Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse. Records show Bason was arrested Thursday and booked into Santa Rita Jail at 1:44 a.m. Friday morning, also on charges of first degree murder involving a shooting and a vehicle.

Three law enforcement sources confirmed that Bason was allegedly hired to shoot Xu.

The daylight slaying on Oakland’s Fifth Avenue sparked outrage and redoubled the public’s calls to protect people of Asian descent.

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan