Berkeleyside got several questions Tuesday about police activity in town, including an investigation into gunfire on Stuart Street that damaged a vehicle, an arrest downtown after a fight, and an agitated man who ended up being taken for a psychiatric evaluation in South Berkeley.
The Berkeley Police Department responded at about 8:40 p.m. to the 1900 block of Stuart Street, said Lt. Dan Montgomery, weeknight watch commander. There had been reports of possible gunfire.
Officers found no victims, but they did discover one vehicle that had been hit three times by gunfire and left at the scene.
The shooter was described as a black man in his early 20s with an athletic build who was wearing a red shirt, said Montgomery. He was seen running eastbound from the scene on Stuart, then south on Milvia Street.
Read about past shootings in Berkeley.
Earlier in the day on Milvia in downtown Berkeley, a plainclothes officer had been walking through Civic Center Park when he saw one man punching another in the face shortly before 2:45 p.m., said Montgomery. (A Berkeleyside reader had seen the police activity and asked for more information.)
The assailant fled and the officer called for backup, Montgomery said. Police detained the man — 35-year-old Alfred Charles Taylor Jr. of Berkeley — and he was identified by witnesses as the person responsible for the violence.
Taylor was arrested but was released on a citation for battery.
Another reader asked Berkeleyside about significant police activity Tuesday morning, around 11:30 a.m., at King Street and Alcatraz Avenue.
Lt. Kevin Schofield, a Berkeley Police spokesman, told Berkeleyside on Wednesday that police had been called to the 3200 block of Adeline Street after one person had threatened to hurt another one.
Officers responded and found the suspect, a 31-year-old Berkeley man, who was agitated and threatened to have a weapon. At one point he picked up a stick, Schofield said.
Police followed the man onto Alcatraz Avenue, and tried to talk him into surrendering. The man took off his shirt and continued walking, said Schofield.
Officers followed him, and took him into custody without incident when he tried to go into a board and care facility at Alcatraz and California Street, about five blocks away. Police detained him because the man did not live at that facility and officers didn’t want him going inside out of concern for the safety of residents there.
Schofield said the man was someone who was well-known to police and that prior contacts with him had resulted in injuries to officers. Ultimately, the man was not arrested because the victim did not want to pursue a case, though threats of violence had been made, Schofield said.
The man was taken for a psychiatric evaluation after he was detained.
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