Two people were shot and killed in two separate midday Oakland shootings Tuesday, according to police.
It’s unclear if there is any connection between the shootings.
The first happened at around 2:19 p.m. at the Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline boat launch, according to Public Information Specialist Jen Vanya with the East Bay Regional Park District.
Vanya said officers from both the park district and the Oakland Police Department arrived to find one man dead from a gunshot wound. An investigation is underway.
The second happened near the Lake Merritt BART station just a few minutes later, according to the transit agency’s Chief Communications Officer Alicia Trost. Trost said one person was shot and killed just after 2:30 p.m. on the street level and near the station’s bus zone.
The victim was identified as a teenager.
“I was minutes away from being involved as a witness in this. It’s very very challenging what’s happening in our community,” said James Manion, who was near the scene on his bike.
BART police later took a suspect into custody in connection to the shooting, following a search of the area around the station, according to Trost.
Trost said there was no indication that either the man in custody or the person who was shot were BART riders.
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The Lake Merritt station was briefly closed, but was reopened at around 3:10 p.m.
Other types of violent crime are on the rise as well in recent years compared to crime rates since 2005. Assaults have more than doubled during the first half of this year, compared to the same months in 2019.
Carjackings nearly tripled in the first six months of this year, compared to the same period in 2019, and murders in Oakland have experienced an increase of 13% this year, compared to the same period in 2019.
The president of the Oakland Police Officers Association is now demanding Mayor Sheng Thao take action.
“Let’s get a permanent police chief. It’s been seven months since position is vacated. What are we doing?” said Barry Donelan. “Crime is spiraling here for significant challenges for both the police officers and citizens alike and still no police chief.”
The man who Mayor Thao defeated for mayor, Loren Taylor, thinks the mayor needs to come home immediately from her business trip to Vietnam.
“We gotta focus first, and what we have here at home now there’s a crisis now in public safety and we need to be giving residents the confidence that we are getting on top of this and we’re really going to solve this issue,” he said.
Mayor Thao’s business trip to Vietnam is designed to bring more business to the port of Oakland.
A call to the mayor to comment on this story was not returned.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
