An unidentified man was shot in the leg at around 4:45 p.m. tonight on the edge of Frank Ogawa Plaza, right near the Occupy Oakland encampment. It was not immediately known whether the man was involved with the protest or not.

Several protesters rushed to help the man before the paramedics arrived ten minutes later. City Brights writer Aimee Allison was on the scene and reports that the protesters banded together to keep people from photographing and filming the victim, linking arms around him, and some even turned violent:

A few feet away a TV cameraman was shooting footage and a crowd of twenty or so men attacked and punched him, forcing him over the railing of the 14th Street BART Station.

Additionally, Allison notes that tomorrow is the one-month anniversary of Occupy Oakland, and organizers have planned a celebration.

UPDATE: Oakland North and the Oakland Tribune have further coverage of the event. The victim appears to have been shot more than just in the leg, and he died at a hospital two hours later. There had been a dispute between to men in or near the Occupy camp shortly before the shooting, but the police say it remains unclear whether the victim was even involved in that dispute. By another account, the victim was loudly fighting with four or five other men at the edge of the camp before the shooting took place. The victim ran toward the BART station on the City Hall side of Broadway at 14th Street, and collapsed about 15 feet from it. Occupy campers remained concerned all evening with how to address the media, and they held a vigil at 10 p.m. to honor the victim. Mayor Jean Quan and council member Larry Reid have both issued statements saying that this incident underscores the reasons why the camp must go.