A man who was shot in the area of Sacramento and Oregon streets near Bob’s Liquor store on Thursday night at around 7:30 pm was pronounced dead at Highland Hospital last night. Berkeley police have made one arrest, but no specific details of the arrestee are being released. The case is being investigated as a homicide. Berkeley Police officers were still on the scene of the incident at 4.20 am Friday morning, and are continuing to investigate.
After 7:34 pm, Berkeley Police received multiple calls of loud reports in the area of the 2800 block of Sacramento Street. Responding officers found a single gunshot victim lying in the roadway on Oregon Street west of Sacramento Street. The Berkeley Fire Department transported the victim to Highland Hospital where he was pronounced dead, according to Berkeley Police Lt. Kevin Schofield, who was the watch commander on duty at the time of the crime.
The investigation so far has found that two adult males walked out of a corner store at Sacramento Street/Oregon Street when they were confronted by a small group of suspects, at least one of whom was armed with a firearm. The males who were in the store began to run away, west on Oregon Street, when the suspect(s) began firing. One victim was able to avoid being hit, the other was struck multiple times. The suspects then fled.
Officers arrived on scene, summoned medical attention, secured the scene and began to look for witnesses. The victims appear to have been targeted, and the police have determined this was not a random shooting.
The man arrested is from Berkeley, according to Lt. Ed Spiller. His name has not yet been released.
It is the third homicide in Berkeley this year. On Jan. 26, Kenneth Warren was shot dead near his workplace on the corner of Shattuck and Emerson, and on Feb. 18 Peter Cukor was bludgeoned to death outside his home on Park Gate in the Berkeley hills. In 2011, there was only one homicide in Berkeley.
The shootings on Sacramento Street are among a rash of shootings along that corridor. On Dec. 23, five men shot off weapons on Sacramento Street near Woolsey. On Monday, there was another shooting nearby on Russell Street. No one was injured in that incident.
Related:
Shooting on Sacramento and Oregon, victim wounded [03.29.12]
