Seven shot dead in bloody Oakland weekend - This is in California, NOT Bagdad, Iraq
- From: rst0wxyz <rst0wxyz@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2008 12:12:45 -0700 (PDT)
Seven shot dead in bloody Oakland weekend
Five of 6 incidents within blocks of each other
http://www.insidebayarea.com/news/ci_9669810
Article Created: 06/22/2008 10:58:18 PM PDT
OAKLAND — It was a bloody weekend in Oakland as seven people were
killed and an eighth wounded in a series of street shootings Saturday
and Sunday.
By late Sunday night, police had not determined if all the shootings
were related, but the series of homicides brought this year's total to
66, far ahead of the 44 slayings during the same period last year.
Officer Vic Bullock said police have to deal with these kinds of
incidents periodically. "We just have weekends like this from time to
time. There's no rhyme or reason," he said. "We get more violence
sometimes with the longer daylight hours. I don't know if there's ever
been a study done, but people stay out longer."
The shootings took place at the following times and locations: 8 p.m.
Saturday, 5900 Foothill Blvd.; 10:30 p.m. Saturday, 300 block East
18th Street; 1:20 a.m. Sunday, 5900 block East 17th Street; 3:30 a.m.
Sunday, 8600 MacArthur Blvd.; 4:18 a.m. Sunday, 90th Avenue; and a
double homicide at 6:15 p.m. Sunday at 6200 Bromley Ave. A third
person was wounded in that attack and listed in grave condition at an
area hospital Sunday night.
When the East 18th shooting occurred, a Lucky grocery store employee
said she was sitting on a bench nearby, waiting for a ride home. She
said she heard about six shots, and then two cars sped off in opposite
directions. She said there was no help from passers-by.
"I was really amazed by the vibe on the street here," she said.
"People were walking by like it was an everyday thing. Nobody rushed
over to help him."
She also took issue with the emergency response.
"I'm also really upset at how long it took the police to get here,"
she said, adding that paramedics arrived in about five minutes,
followed by the police three minutes later.
"If you know there's a gunshot and someone's hurt, you need to be
there immediately. Who knows? I don't know where he was hit, but the
boy's life might have been saved."
Bullock said he didn't know how long the response was but explained
that there are factors in emergency responses.
"It's a matter of when the call came in," he said. "We respond
immediately. And I know, I've been lying there waiting for an
ambulance to come — it seems like an eternity when you're lying there
shot. But that's just human nature. The average response is three to
four minutes once a call gets to the police. But most people hear a
shot and don't call us. So many things that sound like shots are
something else, we don't usually get called until somebody sees a guy
lying there shot."
He defended the responders.
"You think they're going to stop and get doughnuts on the way? They
live for this stuff. I mean, this is somebody's life we're talking
about here. It's a matter of when the call came in.
"We respond immediately. And I know, I've been lying there waiting for
an ambulance to come. It seems like an eternity when you're lying
there shot. But that's just human nature."
Staff writer Sean Maher and The Associated Press contributed to this
story.
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