Man dead, woman injured after 2 shot in West Berkeley

Update, Dec. 30, 9:40 a.m. Berkeley police sent out an alert around 9 a.m. Tuesday to say San Pablo Avenue is open in both directions at University Avenue. They added: “BPD appreciates your patience as we conducted our investigation.”

ORIGINAL STORY: Two people were injured, and one of them has died, after a shooting Monday night in West Berkeley.

According to Berkeley Police spokeswoman Officer Jennifer Coats, a male and female were shot at about 9:45 p.m. Coats said the man was pronounced dead at the scene, and that she was unsure about the condition of the female, who was taken to the hospital. Coats said, as of about 10:45 p.m., she was en route to the scene to learn more from investigators.

See the update on this case, which includes the victim’s name and personal videos.

According to unconfirmed scanner traffic, the incident took place near the 99 Cents Only store at 1941 San Pablo Ave., near University Avenue, and may have begun as a robbery of medical marijuana.

An officer who arrived to the scene within minutes said on the scanner that at least one person had been shot in the face. One victim was taken to Highland Hospital in Oakland for medical treatment.

The involved vehicle was described as a silver or gold sedan with tinted windows, and an officer on the scanner said a shotgun had been used during the shooting.

Police stopped a car that matched the suspect vehicle’s description on Buchanan Street in Albany shortly after 10 p.m., but Coats said she did not know if it had been related to the case, or if anyone had been arrested. (As of about 11:30 p.m., she said she was not aware of any arrests related to the case.)

A dispatcher told an officer over the scanner that “the lines just lit up like Christmas” as calls about the incident poured in, though she said she was unable to provide the exact number of callers who had reported the shooting.

One local resident in the area at about 10:30 p.m. said she and her husband saw the crime scene, which appeared to be in the parking lot of Everett & Jones Barbecue: “There were police markers on the ground and police tape around the perimeter of E&J and the parking lot around it. We saw one car with both the driver side and passenger side wide open.”

After the incident, police remained in the area and around the West Berkeley neighborhood to speak with witnesses and check security footage.

San Pablo Avenue is closed from University to Hearst Avenue due to the investigation. (As of 11:04 p.m., it remained closed, according to a Nixle alert from the Berkeley Police Department. Police advised drivers to use alternate routes.)

So far this year, three people have been killed in Berkeley, including 54-year-old Sylvan Fuselier near San Pablo Avenue and Addison Street in February; Nancy McClellan, 72, in South Berkeley in September during an attempted carjacking; and Damarco Thomas in a shooting in October at the Seabreeze market on University Avenue west of Interstate 80.

This story was updated after publication due to the ongoing nature of the incident. Berkeleyside has requested additional information and will update this story if more details become available. Read more about shootings in Berkeley and homicides in 2014.

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Emilie Raguso