Oakland's homicide rate is creeping up for 2014 but remains lower, and slower to grow, than at this time last year. Four separate shooting incidents yesterday resulted in four injured men, one of them critically, and one 22-year-old man shot fatally on 1700 block of 103rd Avenue in East Oakland. It was the city's 40th killing of 2014 most of which are recorded here, by the Mercury-News and the city had seen 45 homicides at this time last year.
The OPD may be having some success in curbing gun violence and what's frequently been cited as gang-related conflicted in East and West Oakland, having hit a record low for the last decade in 2013 of 92 murders. The city is on track to be lower than that in 2014 if these trends continue.
The four separate shootings, all on Sunday, however suggests some cause for concern. In on incident, as the Tribune reports, a 20-year-old man was playing basketball at Arroyo Viejo Park when he said he heard gunfire and found that he'd been grazed by a bullet in the back. In another incident, a 21-year-old man "told police he had just left Interstate 580 and was driving in the area of 106th Avenue and Foothill Boulevard in East Oakland when someone started shooting at his car." He sustained just a graze wound to his head.
The 22-year-old was killed in an apparent shootout with a 24-year-old, who was also wounded. And in another incident 1:13 p.m. Sunday, a 20-year-old man "was shot in the lower body near the intersection of Goss and Wood streets in West Oakland."
Meanwhile, in San Francisco, an unidentified man was fatally shot Friday morning at 9:18 a.m. near Mission and 15th Streets, marking S.F.'s 11th homicide of the year.
We saw 48 total homicides in S.F. in 2013, and as police chief Greg Suhr has been saying since last month, the rate appears to be steadily going down. To put it in perspective, by April 2013, the city had already seen 12 murders.
Sorry everyone for kicking Monday off with gruesome statistics! But at least that's now out of the way.
