At least six people were injured Wednesday in a shooting in the north of the country California school campus, Oakland Police Capt. Casey Johnson said during a news conference.
Three of the injured were in critical condition at Highland Hospital in Oakland, while the other three were taken to Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley and their condition is unknown, officials said.
The shooting took place on a street where there are several schools and where there are many school-age children, the TV channel reports.
The incident is “no longer active,” Alameda County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lt. Ray Kelly said.
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf tweeted that all of the injured were adults and that the shooting happened at Sojourner Truth Independent Study, an alternative kindergarten through 12th grade school on the same block as three other schools.
Paramedics took six patients to the hospital, all with gunshot wounds, Oakland Fire Department spokesman Michael Hunt said.
John Sasaki, a spokesman for the Oakland Unified School District, said in a statement that district officials “do not have any information other than what Oakland police have reported.” He said there are no students at the Sojourner Truth independent research headquarters.
The Oakland Police Department tweeted that officers were investigating the shooting on Fontaine Street, where the schools are located.
The Oakland Police Department is investigating a shooting that occurred in the 8200 block of Fountain Street.
We ask our community members to avoid the area during this time.
PIO en route to incident. Media we will be updating including the stage area. pic.twitter.com/9zvmmW7lC3
— Oakland Police Department (@oaklandpoliceca) September 28, 2022
A day before Wednesday’s shooting, Oakland Police Chief Leron Armstrong announced plans address the city’s ongoing gun violence by increasing the presence of officers in areas where gun violence is concentrated and where police believe people are often involved in shootings.
This latest shooting comes after more than two years of escalating gun violence that began at the start of the pandemic. This year, 96 people were killed, mostly by guns. At this time last year, 102 people died.
Before the pandemic, homicides and gun violence in Oakland — along with a number of cities across the region — reached historical lows. But by the mid-2020s, gun violence was on the rise, and the usual shelters of schools, community centers and violence prevention workers were largely unavailable. By the end of the year, 102 people had died, which is 24 more than a year earlier.
The youth of the city did not miss this increase in the number of murders. At least 14 people under the age of 20 were killed in 2020, according to an analysis of government homicide data by the Guardian. More would die the following year, including 18-year-old Demetrius Fleming-Davis, an Oakland native who was shot while riding in the back of a truck.
“A lot of us have plans that we can’t even carry out because we die at 18 and 19. It’s just a big war zone that we’re in and I don’t know how to stop it,” Sienna Williams said. . , last year’s 19-year-old friend of Fleming-Davies.
The Associated Press contributed to this story
