On Saturday, just four days after 27-year-old Antonio Ramos was shot and killed while painting a community empowerment and anti-violence mural in West Oakland, a locally known ice cream truck proprietor was also the victim of tragic gun violence. Jasvir Singh was shot and killed inside his ice cream van in East Oakland, as CBS 5 and the Associated Press report.
According to police, a man with a gun approached the truck, shooting five times and fatally wounding Singh at about 4:30 p.m. while he drove on Peach Street between 92nd and 94th Avenues. The shooter ran away through backyards and the van crashed into a parked car during the killing. Singh's van is well-known in the area, decorated with stickers and signs advertising his wares. He died on the scene, as the Chronicle also confirms. Singh was 45 years old.
“Every loss of life is tragic and that is why safety will continue to be my highest priority,” Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said in a statement released Sunday. “There is something especially poignant when someone engaged in a positive and innocent act — like painting a mural or bringing ice cream to children — is taken by senseless violence."
This year to date Oakland has seen 74 homicides. Last year at this time there had been 59, an uptick of 25 percent.
"[A] lot of people knew him," Officer Jason Andersen told the Oakland Tribune. "This is very sad."
Related: Local Artist Shot And Killed While Working On Anti-Violence Mural In West Oakland