OAKLAND — In what may have been the largest mass shooting in Oakland’s history, 15 people were wounded by gunfire Wednesday night at a sideshow near Lake Merritt.
The violent episode followed a peaceful Juneteenth celebration that drew around 5,000 people near Lake Merritt earlier in the evening.
The victims were men and women, police said at a Thursday afternoon news conference, ranging in age from their 20s to their 30s. They suffered various types of wounds, including graze wounds and one person who lost fingers in the shooting, according to Oakland police Chief Floyd Mitchell.
Most of the victims were in stable condition, Mitchell said. A 23-year-old man who is an Oakland resident was still in critical condition Thursday.
One man was also violently assaulted after he walked on the hood of a car, Mitchell said. The car’s occupants got out and beat the man.
Some 30 police had been in the area around the lake Wednesday evening as thousands of people gathered, enjoying good weather, music, food and more on Juneteenth, the federal holiday marking the end of slavery. As the evening wore on, officials said, a sideshow involving some 20 vehicles, including dirt bikes and ATVs, broke out in the area of Grand and Bellevue avenues around 8:15 p.m.
Authorities were working to close the sideshow when a fight broke out, leading to the shooting at around 8:45 p.m. Two officers were punched in the face as they attempted to give first aid to a victim in the wake of the shooting, Mitchell said.
“This type of behavior and level of violence is unacceptable,” the chief said. He said Oakland’s families were out celebrating Juneteenth, and “that should not be marred” by such violence.
It was unclear how many people may have fired guns, Mitchell said. Authorities collected some 50 shell casings at the scene. No suspects were named Thursday, and no arrests related to the shooting were announced. A woman was arrested as a suspect in the assault on the officer, Mitchell said.
Cathy Adams, the president of the Oakland African American Chamber of Commerce, said Thursday that the events at Lake Merritt were yet another reminder for the city that “we can’t keep going forward with the status quo.”
“Our city needs healing,” she said. “It needs to be able to breathe. We need to be able to enjoy the city we have. We will not be able to do that until the things that need to be fixed become fixable.”
A detail of 28 officers and four sergeants were already in the area for the Juneteenth celebration, police spokesman Paul Chambers said.
“We wanted to make sure people had a safe time, but unfortunately that did not happen,” he said.
Asked Thursday if he thought the staffing levels police used Wednesday night were appropriate, the chief said that his office was reviewing overall staffing levels for the city, a project that could at least take through the end of the year.
Oakland’s police union, in a statement Thursday afternoon, ripped the violence officers faced, lauded their bravery and called for more police positions to be funded by the city.
“The events of last night highlight the severe risks our officers take to ensure public safety,” said Huy Nguyen, president of the Oakland Police Officers’ Association. “If city leaders truly value public safety, we need to make serious considerations about adequately staffing the Oakland Police Department.”
In 2021, a shooting on Lakeshore Avenue took place near the end of a city-sponsored Juneteenth event on the lake’s south shore. One person was killed, and seven were wounded in that attack. Police later identified a person of interest in that case, but no one has been charged in the shooting.
Councilmember Carroll Fife, whose district encompasses where the shooting happened, said, “It’s truly tragic. I am in conversation with the city administrator and all our safety provider leads about plans to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
Adams added that the violence was just another reminder of the daily struggles residents and business owners of the city face just to live with some peace and order.
“I’ve never seen it this bad and take on such a life on its own as it has now,” Adams said. “What are we gonna do to take accountability to create programs to help these young people gain the requisite skills so they can make some money?”
“Nobody wants to call in the National Guard,” she added. “Nobody wants anything that drastic. But how much is enough? When is enough enough? How many more people need to die or be wounded before we can understand that this is an emergency?”
Darren White of the Oakland NAACP said that the organization continues to support public safety and said that the shootings were more evidence that only cooperation between city leaders and self-accountability from the citizens will solve the problem.
“It just hurts my heart,” he said. “I grew up here. I know what my city was and what it still can be. I’m not disgusted with my city. I’m not giving up on my city. Never gonna give up on it or my people. But it does hurt to see this city in such a situation.”
