A 32-year-old East Oakland man who can be seen in ABC7 helicopter video footage stalking his neighborhood with a rifle and vandalizing a garage and a car had provided ample warning to police and nearby residents that he posed a disturbing threat to the public before he was shot by police during a standoff Friday, neighbors claim. Jesse Enjaian died in an Oakland hospital Friday night after exchanging gunfire with police in the morning.
“This is extremely concerning for the Oakland Police Department,” OPD Officer Johnna Watson said during the standoff on Las Vegas Avenue according to the Chronicle.“We have a lot of traffic that comes through this area. We also have several schools in the area.”
Roads such as Interstate 580 were closed for hours and nearby schools like Barack Obama Academy and Bishop O’Dowd High School were evacuated and issued shelter in place warnings as Enjaian fired his rifle at officers from just south of the school.
Troublingly, ABC7 learns from neighbors that this wasn't the first instance of Enjaian's violent, potentially deadly behavior. In fact, the gunman "had been shooting up the neighborhood for a week."
Apparently referring to the week prior to Enjaian's fatal standoff, neighbor Clifton Simpson told the station that "Friday night he shot up my son's friend's car and Tuesday night he shot up two cars in the street, Tuesday morning rather."
(Time for a thought experiment: Reverse the race of these neighbors and play out the scenario in your mind.)
Police did not confirm to ABC7 how many times they had been notified of Enjain's actions or how many times they had visited his house.
"If he's already done that twice you don't know when he's going to snap," Simpson continued, "And he snapped today evidently, that's what he did, he snapped today... I'm pissed. They should have got him Friday night."
Demonstrating what might be seen as another instance of racial bias, ABC7 frames a report on Enjaian's past as one of "vast contrast." For example, an accusation against him — that he had stalked someone — is shocking given he was enrolled in law school. He "had some problems," but was in a computer club in high school, so who could have seen this coming, the report seems to say.
Who indeed, besides those neighbors, and the person whom Enjaian allegedly stalked who claimed that he'd expressed his desire to use a gun in an “act of mass homicide." Other than them, nobody.
