Oakland police on Friday joined violence prevention advocates and families of homicide victims in urging the community to come together and become part of the solution.
In the past week, there have been more than a half-dozen shootings in Oakland, including one that severely wounded a toddler.
"Trying to apprehend the offenders of some of these violent crimes is paramount, so we ask that the community provide any information you can when you witness a crime or may have information that will give us some investigative leads," Oakland police Capt. David Elzey said.
This week, Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao outlined steps that her office is taking to try to address gun violence and root causes.
"There is an epidemic in regards to gun violence," she said. "There are too many illegal guns on the street. We have to work together nationwide on how do we confront this."
Police said they want to lean into prevention strategies as well.
"Cease fire strategy and getting the rival groups and gangs together so that we can prevent shootings from even happening in the first place," Elzey said. "Those type of strategies are key. Dealing with probation department and if we know offenders are coming out that may have a history of violence, getting to them early and making that a condition of their probation or parole."
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