Update, 10 p.m. Police arrested one person in the 1600 block of Russell Street on suspicion of having a loaded gun, Lindenau said. As of publication time, officers were still investigating whether that individual was connected to Wednesday night’s gunfire. No further information was immediately available.
Original story: Police in Berkeley responded to Oregon and California streets Wednesday night for gunfire in the area, authorities report.
Community members heard the gunfire shortly before 8 p.m. and called it in. As the incident unfolded, one driver crashed into a parked vehicle and several people ran from the scene. Police responded quickly and were “all over it,” one local resident told Berkeleyside.
“I saw three guys jump out of their car and fire at a guy running up California,” he said. The driver of the crashed vehicle abandoned it at the scene.
Berkeley Police Lt. David Lindenau said several people in two vehicles were involved in the shooting.
One of the drivers hit some parked vehicles at Oregon and California streets, and gunfire struck an apartment complex nearby, he said. Police also found casings in the street.
As of publication time, no one who had been wounded by gunfire had been located.
Police have responded to at least six gunfire incidents in Berkeley in 2020. Two of them have been fatal.
Last week, a 19-year-old UC Berkeley student was shot in the head while walking in his neighborhood less than a mile from Wednesday’s shooting. No arrests have been made in that investigation. A $50,000 reward has been offered to help solve the case.
In March, authorities charged a Richmond couple after an apparent road rage incident that month left a 29-year-old man dead.
In April, a woman was wounded in a shooting near People’s Park.
Several of the incidents had no reported victims: at the Berkeley Marina in February, and in North Berkeley and West Berkeley in March.
Berkeleyside will update this story if additional information becomes available.
Note: Berkeleyside added details about several other shootings in 2020 to the story after publication.
