At least six people were injured in a shooting Wednesday on a school campus in northern California, Oakland police Capt. Casey Johnson said at a news conference.
Officials said three of the injured were in critical condition at Highland Hospital in Oakland, and three others were taken to Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, where their condition was unclear.
The shooting took place on a street where there are multiple schools and many school-aged children, according to the TV station.
Lt. Ray Kelly, a spokesman for the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, said the incident was “no longer active.”
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf tweeted that all the injured were adults and that the shooting occurred at the Sojourner Truth Independent Study, an alternative kindergarten to grade 12 school on the same block as three other schools.
Paramedics have taken six patients to hospital, all with gunshot wounds, according to Oakland Fire Department spokesman Michael Hunter.
Oakland Unified School District spokesman John Sasaki said in a statement that district officials “have no information beyond what was reported by Oakland Police.” He said there were no students at the Sojourner Truth Independent Study headquarters.
The Oakland Police Department said on Twitter that officers were investigating the shooting on Fontaine Street, where the school is located.
The Oakland Police Department is investigating a shooting in the 8200 block of Fontaine Street.
We ask our community members to avoid this area at this time.
PIO is on its way to the scene. Media We will update the staging area. pic.twitter.com/9zvmmW7lC3
— Oakland Police Department (@oaklandpoliceca) September 28, 2022
Wednesday’s shooting comes a day after Oakland Police Chief LeRon Armstrong announced plans to address the city’s ongoing gun violence problem by increasing police presence in areas where gun violence is concentrated and where police believe people are regularly involved in shootings.
The latest shootings follow more than two years of escalation in gun violence that began early in the pandemic. So far this year, 96 people have been killed, mostly in shootings. This time last year, 102 people were killed.
Prior to the pandemic, homicides and gun violence in Oakland, as well as many cities in the region, were at an all-time low. But by mid-2020, gun violence was on the rise, leaving schools, community centers and the usual shelters for violence prevention workers largely unusable. At the end of the year, 102 people were killed, an increase of 24 over the previous year.
Young people in the city have also not been spared the rise in homicides. At least 14 people under the age of 20 were killed in 2020, according to a Guardian analysis of state homicide data. More people were killed the following year, including Oakland native Demetrius Fleming-Davis, 18, who was shot while riding in the back of a truck.
“A lot of us have plans and we can’t even make them happen because we die at 18 and 19. It’s just a big war zone we’re facing, and I don’t know how to stop it,” said Cianna Williams, Fleming – A friend of Davis’ 19-year-old last year.