A routine traffic stop in East Oakland on Saturday afternoon resulted in the violent shooting deaths of four police officers. According to reports, "a 26-year-old gunman shot two motorcycle officers after being pulled over at 1:15 p.m. Saturday, killing one and wounding the other." The gunman then quickly escaped the scene, hiding at a nearby apartment. After the police hunted down the assailant and broke into the apartment, "he shot two more officers with an assault rifle, killing them both, before he was shot dead by the police."
The names of the victims are Sgt. Ervin Romans, 43; Sgt. Daniel Sakai, 35; Sgt. Mark Dunakin 40; and Officer John Hege, 41.
Acting police chief Howard A. Jordan told The New York Times, “I’ve been to a lot of police funerals ... [t]his will be a pretty traumatic and daunting task for us as a department. It’s not going to be easy and it’s not going to happen tomorrow, but in the end, I think we will move on from this.”
The lone gunman was Lovelle Mixon an Oakland resident who "was on parole for assault with a deadly weapon." A "no bail" warrant was out for his arrest.