Man killed in East Oakland shooting; Business owners demand city clean up area
OAKLAND -- A group of business owners on Pearmain Street in Oakland have complained for months about a rise in crime, blight and homeless campers in their neighborhood. They say the situation has deteriorated, and Tuesday night it turned deadly.
A man was shot and killed just after 11:30 p.m. on Pearmain, south of 98th Avenue.
ALSO READ: Frustrated businesses say Oakland's Pearmain Street is a dangerous dumping ground
The flag on top of Melrose Metal Finishing still flies upside down, a signal of distress. With his surveillance cameras, owner Curtis Nagengast has documented all kinds of crime: drug use, illegal dumping and armed robberies.
In October, after much complaining, the city sent out crews to remove all the trash and evict the homeless RVs. It didn't last long.
"They just came back. And we were sending emails and pictures to the city," said Nagengast. "It's been allowed to stay this way--and get worse, obviously."
He says things have been getting more violent with people openly shooting guns in the air and at each other.
"Lot of gunplay, yeah...a lot of gunplay," said Nagengast.
The business owners have said that it felt like the city was waiting for someone to get killed, and on Tuesday night, it happened. A man was shot and killed in cold blood in the middle of the street.
Police had not identified the victim, but Nagengast said he was a familiar face--one of the homeless people living on Pearmain.
"If this is the start, I'd hate to see the end," said Terry Dutter. He operates a small trucking company out of a fenced lot on Pearmain. The deadly shooting happened right outside.
"Where am I? Right here!" he said as he looked out on the street. "This is where we...we're stuck. This is where we're stuck."
Detectives were still at the scene late Wednesday morning. But, after what he's seen, Dutter is too cynical to think anything will really come of it. He said police rarely venture into the neighborhood. To him and others Pearmain St. is an example of what happens when the city allows lawlessness in the name of compassion for the downtrodden.
"It's come to picking sides," he said, "and they picked the side they wanted to pick. And this is the end result."
"It's not in their neighborhood, so they don't really care about it," said Nagengast. "They have compassion, but they wouldn't have compassion for it if it was right outside their front door."
A lot of people think crime is a problem in Oakland. On Pearmain Street, it's become a way of life. And now...death.
