San Francisco ? Dr. Yusuf Bey opened the doors to Your Black Muslim Bakery nearly 40 years ago, selling bean and carrot pies and hoping to inspire Oakland’s poor to become “respectable and productive individuals.”

The organization – which now includes chain of bakeries, a security service, a school and other businesses – was raided Friday, a day after the brazen daytime killing of 57-year-old Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey.

Seven people affiliated with the group have been arrested in connection with the killing and other violent crimes, including the bakery’s chief executive officer, who is the son of its late founder.

Bailey’s colleagues say he was working on an investigative story about the bakery’s finances when he was killed by a masked gunman near the Alameda County courthouse in downtown Oakland.

Authorities on Saturday said they believe the gunman was Devaughndre Broussard, who was booked on murder charges and worked as a handyman for the group. Other suspects have been booked on charges including murder, kidnapping and assault, police said, but the only one named so far is the CEO, Yusuf Bey IV.

The Muslim group’s headquarters at the original bakery and three Oakland houses tied to the group were raided before dawn Friday. Police said they recovered a gun and other evidence linked to Bailey’s slaying and voiced confidence that his killer was among those arrested.

Assistant Police Chief Howard Jordan said the raids were part of a yearlong investigation into a variety of violent crimes, including two homicides this year and a kidnapping and torture case.

An attorney for Bey IV, Lorna Brown, did not return calls seeking comment. Authorities had no information on an attorney for Broussard.

The arrests were the latest in a series of recent legal and financial troubles that have plagued the once-thriving business that Bey founded amid the social upheaval of 1968. Pledging to empower the city’s black community, Bey espoused the tenets of the Black Muslim movement, selling books by Malcolm X and other black leaders alongside natural baked goods.

A member of the bakery said at a sidewalk news conference late Friday that the allegations do not reflect his group’s principles.