Six people were shot near an Oakland, California, school campus. Authorities are looking for the shooter
By Josh Campbell, Cheri Mossburg, Taylor Romine and Christina Maxouris, CNN
Six people were injured in a Wednesday shooting at an East Oakland, California, school campus, and authorities are looking for those responsible, police said Wednesday.
Officers responded to reports of a shooting just after 12:45 p.m. local time at a school campus that houses four different schools, Oakland Police Assistant Chief Darren Allison said in a Wednesday evening news conference. The schools range from middle to high schools, the assistant chief said.
When officers arrived on scene they “immediately” made entry into the school and found six adults who had “some affiliation with the school” suffering from gunshot wounds, Allison said. The assistant chief did not specify whether the victims were students or staff.
All six victims were transported to hospitals, including two who were suffering life-threatening injuries. A third victim has been released, two were pending release and the last victim was being treated for non-life threatening injuries.
Police are looking for at least one shooter though more people could be involved, Allison added.
“Any time there is a shooting in our community it is a complete tragedy,” Allison said. “But as a parent, I completely understand the fear, the emotion, the panic, when shootings are occurring at our schools, with our children, and it’s completely unacceptable.”
Officers conducted a “methodical” search of the school earlier looking for more evidence, police spokesperson Paul Chambers told CNN. Authorities do not yet know if the shooting was a random incident or targeted among people who knew each other, Chambers said.
The Oakland Unified School District said in a Wednesday statement there was an incident at “the King Estate campus on Fontaine Street, which houses the co-located Rudsdale Continuation and Newcomer high schools, BayTech Charter School, and the headquarters of Sojourner Truth Independent Study, which has no students at the site.”
“The campus is near Oakland Academy of Knowledge (OAK), but it is important to note the incident was NOT at OAK, nor did it have anything to do with that elementary school,” the statement said.
The school campus has since been cleared by authorities, the assistant police chief said.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) was also responding to the scene, the agency said Wednesday afternoon.
The office of California Gov. Gavin Newsom in a statement on Twitter called the shooting “a horrifying act of violence that has grown too familiar.”
“Yet again, our kids were in the crossfire. This cannot continue — gun violence has taken too much from our communities,” the governor’s statement added.
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