One man killed, another injured in North Oakland midday shooting

A man was killed and another man was left in critical condition in a shooting on Wednesday morning on the 800 block of 52^nd Street, two blocks down from Children’s Hospital.

Oakland Police have not released any more information on the victims or the suspect, and have not announced if anyone is in custody, according to OPD Public Information Officer Holly Joshi.

The shooting occurred at 11:30 this morning, Joshi said. Children’s Hospital was locked down—no one was allowed to enter or leave—for about 20 or 30 minutes afterward, according to Children’s Hospital spokesperson Erin Goldsmith.

Goldsmith said the hospital followed regular procedure after the shooting to “assure patients and staff were safe,” because the shooting was so close. The lockdown was lifted after police notified hospital staff that they had secured the scene.

Police blocked the street off from traffic soon after the shooting, and the barrier, which stretched about six houses on either side of the street, was still up in the afternoon. At least ten officers were on the scene at 2 pm. Neighbors from nearby streets stood outside the yellow plastic tape, talking to one another and trying to find out more information.

Kermit Dearman, who lives nearby on Martin Luther King, Jr. Way, said he heard at least 40 shots from his home. “I heard some shots and I just knew it was something bad,” Dearman said. “It was too many of them.”

As police worked behind the tape, Dearman and another neighbor, who wished to not be identified, talked about other recent shootings in the neighborhood. They remembered two shootings in July that took place nearby, and not far apart—one on 46^th Street, another on 43^rd Street on the same night. The shooting Wednesday, though, was unusual because it happened during the day and there were so many gunshots, Dearman said.

“Stuff happens around here all the time,” Dearman said. “But not like that.”