Gunfire drew police to South Berkeley on Tuesday night but no injuries have been reported, authorities say.
Officers found casings but no victims in the 1300 block of 66th Street, near Idaho Street, just before 8 p.m., said Lt. Peter Hong of the Berkeley Police Department.
The street was closed for a brief period during the investigation.
It’s the second confirmed incident of gunfire in Berkeley in just a few days: Police also handled a shooting over the weekend at the Berkeley Marina. One man was injured.
At Tuesday’s Berkeley City Council meeting, BPD reported an uptick in shootings in the first half of 2018. During those six months, BPD handled 10 confirmed shooting incidents compared to five in the first half of 2017.
BPD said Tuesday that the majority of the incidents in 2018 have been categorized as gang-related. Police have made arrests in six of the 10 cases this year, authorities said.
According to an unofficial Berkeleyside tally, there have been at least 11 shootings in Berkeley in 2018. They left 14 people with gun-related injuries. There have also been at least nine reports of gunfire with no reported victim.
Two people also were shot just over the Berkeley border in Oakland near 63rd and Market streets. One of them, a Berkeley resident, did not survive.
In two other incidents, authorities handled reports from shooting victims in Berkeley but the locations where the violence actually happened were not confirmed.
