Update, Nov. 21: Police have announced an arrest in this case.
Original story: Berkeley police are investigating a shooting near UC Berkeley early Sunday morning that sent one person to the hospital, authorities report.
The shooting happened at about 2:35 a.m. in the 2400 block of Durant Avenue, near Telegraph Avenue, according to the Berkeley Police Department. The location is just one block south of the UC Berkeley campus in a neighborhood that is popular with students.
Officers responding to the area found one person on the sidewalk who had been shot, said Officer Byron White, BPD spokesman. The person was taken to a local trauma center and is expected to survive, police said.
White said the victim is an adult who is not a UC Berkeley student. He said he could release no additional details — such as the victim’s gender or whether that person was an innocent bystander — because the investigation is still in the early stages.
No arrests have been made, White said Sunday afternoon. He confirmed that UC Berkeley’s ShotSpotter system detected the gunfire when it happened.
The early-morning shooting followed reports of possible gunfire Saturday at about 10:30 p.m. that turned out to be fireworks.
There have been at least 26 confirmed incidents of gunfire in Berkeley in 2019. Three of them — in February, May and the latest incident — saw someone wounded who survived. The year’s only fatal shooting took place on UC Berkeley property at People’s Park.
Several of the gunfire calls in 2019 have taken place in the Southside neighborhood near UC Berkeley. White said authorities are taking the investigations seriously. He noted that Sunday’s shooting took place shortly after the bars closed on a weekend night, meaning that many young people were likely outside in the neighborhood when it happened.
“Someone shooting in a dense area near campus is a problem,” he said. “We consider it one of our highest priorities to find out who the people are who are responsible. We certainly don’t want people to continue to get hurt.”
Police ask anyone with information about the crime to call BPD’s Homicide Unit at 510-981-5741.
