Oakland Streets Erupt Into '12 Hours Of Non-Stop Chaos'; Homicides, Shootings, Sideshow Violence
OAKLAND (CBS SF) -- The Fourth of July reeled into "12 hours of non-stop chaos" Sunday night with several victims wounded by celebratory gunfire, a homicide and a massive sideshow marred by gunfire. The night culminated at the sideshow, where more than 200 participants pelted police officers with debris and flashed them with hand-held lasers.
Embattled Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong told reporters that the level of violence and gunfire overwhelmed his officers.
"If you look at the shoot period of time of 6 hours with 6 shootings, that requires a lot of resources," Armstrong said. "That was difficult and officers had to run from scene to scene."
"This was 12 hours of non-stop chaos," he continued. "This is one of the most violent July 4ths I can remember."
While celebratory gunfire has been a hallmark of New Year's Eve and July 4th for years, Armstrong said it reeled completely out of control on Sunday.
"The level of violence is far too high," he said. "Our officers were stretched and did the best we could. We are dealing with challenges. Celebratory gunfire led to the vast majority of these shooting and injuring others. The last 24 hours has been very difficult in the city of Oakland."
At one point, there were no ambulances available to help treat the injured.
"That just goes to show you to the level of violence that we were managing that we didn't have ambulances available to help to come and provide medical support it was taking them a significant amount of time to get there," Armstrong said. "That even concerned our officers."
There were 7 shootings overnight, one that claimed the life of a 48-year-old man. An eighth shooting took place at around 9:54 a.m. Monday in the 2400 block of 88th Avenue near MacArthur Boulevard.
Arriving police officers discovered a woman suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. She was rushed to the hospital, but Armstrong said she was not expected to survive.
Here's a rundown of the 12 hours of chaos
- 6:55 p.m. in 5700 block Elizabeth Street -- an male adult was shot multiple times in his vehicle
- 9:37 p.m. in the 5400 block of Roberts Avenue -- a 16 year old male juvenile with gunshot wounds to the head; In stable condition. The shooting was related to celebratory gunfire activity.
- 10 p.m. in the 2200 block of 23rd Avenue -- 29 year old male adult received multiple gunshot wounds.
- 10:51 p.m. in the 4200 block of International Blvd -- A male adult 45 years old suffered gunshot wound, critically injured and possibly related to celebratory gunshots.
- 11:49 p.m. in the 4200 block of International Blvd. -- An unresponsive adult male suffering from blunt trauma to the head. The victim has since died of his injuries
- 12:08 a.m. in 7700 block of Bancroft Ave -- A 48-year-old adult male suffered multiple gunshots and died at the scene.
- 12:40 a.m. -- A victim walked into a hospital with multiple gunshot wounds.
- 9:44 a.m. -- in the 2400 block of Bancroft Ave. a woman suffers gunshot wounds and is in critical condition.
While they were racing to respond to several reports of shootings, Oakland officers were also confronted with trying to deal with a massive sideshow.
"We encountered a violent and dangerous sideshow with 300 vehicles and 200 spectators with the use of firearms and lasers," Armstrong said. "It went across the city."
Police made three arrests related to the sideshow and five weapons were seized. Armstrong said one spectator was struck by a vehicle and suffered severe injuries that could lead to lifelong treatment.
"This is a warm summer," Armstrong said. "We are at 67 homicides...We have seen violence and shootings continue to occur. It's a challenging time. Warm weather brings people out. We will have to do something as violence continues. We are losing people at an alarming rate and we all need to recognize how much trauma and hurt and pain is in our community and we have to stop. Previously I would have told you hopefully this will slow down as the pandemic slows things to open back up but we haven't seen that. We have seen violence continue."
Andrea Nakano contributed to this report.
