Police still don't have any suspects to tie to a stray bullet that struck and killed a two-year-old child inside a car on I-880 in Oakland on Saturday, and there were three fatal shootings in a 24-hour period in the city between Friday and Saturday.
The freeway shooting happened around 2:15 p.m. Saturday in the southbound lanes of I-880 near Filbert Street. Two-year-old Jasper Wu was in the vehicle with two other children and three adults, as KRON4 reports, and he was the only person struck by a bullet.
The Wu family lives in Fremont, as the East Bay Times reports, and they were traveling in a Lexus sedan.
The child was rushed to UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland, where he was pronounced dead.
Investigators with California Highway Patrol (CHP) do not believe that the Lexus or the child were targeted, but few details have been released so far. And while the family had been traveling southbound on I-880, the subsequent investigation seemed primarily focused on the northbound lanes, all of which were closed to traffic for nearly three hours Saturday as evidence was collected, causing a huge backup.
As NBC Bay Area reported, evidence that was collected from the northbound lanes suggests that the family was not the intended target of the bullet. It is not clear how many other shots were fired.
Initial reports from CHP investigators, per the East Bay Times, suggest that there was a shootout occurring between two vehicles in the northbound lanes, and one stray bullet struck the Wus' vehicle in the southbound lanes. Jasper Wu's mother was reportedly the driver at the time.
Fremont Mayor Lily Mei issued a statement saying the shooting was a "tragedy," and she said to the East Bay Times, "It’s just something that’s heartbreaking."
The shooting came during yet another violent weekend in Oakland.
Jasper Wu became Oakland's 119th homicide of the year, and the previous night, a man shot nearby in East Oakland became the 118th. Four men were shot in an incident that occurred at 8:19 p.m. Friday on the 8400 block of International Boulevard, one of whom died sometime after midnight after being taken to a nearby hospital, as the Chronicle reports.
The city's 120th homicide happened just hours after the freeway shooting, when a man was shot on Weld Street near the Oakland Zoo. Per the Chronicle, that shooting happened around 5:30 p.m. Saturday, and the man died from his wounds.
It's not clear if any of these incidents may have been retaliatory or connected.
A 35-year-old man was also shot just after 3 a.m. Monday morning in Oakland Eastlake neighborhood, in the course of a carjacking, per the East Bay Times.
Anyone with information about the I-880 shooting is asked to call the CHP tip line at 707-917-4491.
Anyone with information on the Weld Street homicide is asked to call Oakland police at (510) 238-7950.
Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
