Update, Saturday, 5 p.m. The man who was killed while driving in Berkeley on Friday had his younger sister in the car when he was attacked, according to community reports. There was no indication that the assailant knew the victim.
Original story: A person was killed in a shooting just north of University Avenue in Berkeley on Friday afternoon, authorities report.
The shooting took place at University and Chestnut Street at about 12:30 p.m. Police have asked people to avoid the area and use alternate routes during the investigation.
According to unconfirmed radio reports reviewed by Berkeleyside, the person who was killed was shot in a vehicle. When firefighters got to the scene, the individual was not breathing.
Berkeley photographer David Yee, who was in the area just before 1 p.m., told Berkeleyside white sheets had been placed over the body and police were putting up a privacy screen to shield it from view. ID technicians were setting up evidence markers on the block, he said.
A community member told Berkeleyside she saw the aftermath of the shooting. Berkeleyside is not including her name due to safety considerations. The woman said she was home Friday when she heard an “incredible bang” then went to look outside.
She saw an SUV that had plowed into a parked vehicle on the block. Another vehicle sped up the block and continued driving north past the crash scene until the driver got to Hearst Avenue and turned left.
In the meantime, the neighbor said, a woman got out of the front passenger side of the crashed SUV. The woman was talking on her phone and kept pointing inside her vehicle where the driver had been shot.
[brk_slideshow title=”Fatal shooting on Chestnut Street”]
Police say they “will provide updates when they become available.”
The Berkeley Police Department also responded last week to gunfire on Berkeley Way about a block from Friday’s shooting. A man has been charged in that case and remains in custody, according to jail records online.
The last homicide in Berkeley took place in January when a man ran over a woman on the sidewalk on University Avenue near Sixth Street.
Berkeleyside is updating this story as additional information is shared.
