Oakland police investigating fatal officer-involved shooting

Byby Elissa Harrington KGO logo
Sunday, June 7, 2015
Oakland police investigating fatal officer-involved shooting
Oakland police are investigating a fatal officer-involved shooting that occurred along the Lakeshore off-ramp of Interstate 580 Saturday morning.

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- Oakland police are investigating a fatal officer-involved shooting that occurred Saturday morning.

Police were wearing body cameras and that's one crucial piece of evidence being used in the investigation.

The busy intersection of Lake Park and Lake Shore avenues was closed to traffic for eight hours on Saturday while police conducted an investigation.

This is Oakland Police Departments first deadly police shooting in two years "Put your hands out the driver's side window with nothing in your hands," an officer said.

A vendor at Oakland's Grand Lake farmers market captured cellphone video that shows the moments before police opened fire and shot a man inside a car with a loaded gun. "They were telling him to get out of his car with a megaphone and he didn't and then we heard them hitting the door with something and then a few minutes later there were two shots," Kim Emanuel said.

Firefighters first discovered a BMW sedan parked along the Lakeshore off-ramp of Interstate 580 at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday.

They found the driver sleeping inside the car with a loaded pistol in the passenger seat. "It is a chrome pistol and it had in it a loaded 30 round magazine clip," Lt. Roland Holmgren said.

Police tried to wake the driver up to get him to come out of the car for over an hour.

Oakland Police Chief Sean Whent says they broke the car windows and tried non-lethal force like bean bag rounds to try and make contact. "Upon the last attempt to do that, officers approached the car. The person at that point was awake. A confrontation ensued with the officers and the person. One officer deployed a Taser. A second officer deployed the firearm," he said.

The suspect was hit by gunfire, but police have not released details about the confrontation.

It's unclear if the suspect ever picked up the gun or fired it.

"We take all uses of force seriously and must closely examine the circumstances every time for the safety and assurance of the public and law enforcement. I am actively making sure that the protocols and supervision we've worked hard to put in place as part of our police reforms are being followed rigorously as this shooting is thoroughly investigated. Our community deserves all of the accurate and timely information that can be provided," Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said.

Investigators won't say much about the driver except the car he was in was involved in a burglary in San Francisco just hours earlier.

The officer who fired the gunshots has been placed on administrative leave.