By Henry K. Lee
The San Francisco Chronicle
SAN FRANCISCO — Two homicides on the first day of 2008, a fatal officer-involved shooting on New Year’s Eve and reports of celebratory overnight gunfire kept Oakland police busy, while San Francisco police investigated a homicide and two stabbings and arrested drunken revelers.
Across the Bay Area, California Highway Patrol officers arrested 227 people for driving under the influence from Friday night to early Tuesday morning, said CHP Sgt. Les Bishop.
In Oakland, a man was stabbed to death by his brother-in-law about 3:20 a.m. Tuesday on the 500 block of Jones Avenue in the Brookfield Village neighborhood of East Oakland, police said. About 3 a.m. Tuesday, a man was shot and killed on the 2400 block of Wood Street in West Oakland.
The names of the victims were not released. They are the first two homicides of the year in Oakland.
On New Year’s Eve, two Oakland officers shot and killed a man who they believed was reaching for a weapon as he hid behind a parked car after fleeing from a traffic stop, police said.
The shooting happened about 7:30 p.m. Monday after two officers pulled over a car with three occupants near 47th Avenue and International Boulevard in Oakland’s Fruitvale district. For an unknown reason, the driver fled from the car, said Assistant Police Chief Howard Jordan.
The two officers stayed with the two passengers and broadcast a description of the driver. Two other officers spotted the man crouching behind a parked car on 47th Avenue and opened fire when he refused to be arrested and appeared to be reaching for his waistband, Jordan said.
The officers feared for their lives and believed the man, whose name wasn’t released, was armed with a gun. No gun was found, however, Jordan said. The officers were placed on routine paid administrative leave pending an investigation by Oakland police and the Alameda County district attorney’s office.
It was the fifth fatal officer-involved shooting in Oakland in 2007. On Dec. 21, two officers shot and killed Valvatin Villa, 26, of Oakland near Ritchie Street and Bancroft Avenue in East Oakland after he reached for a pistol as they approached his car, police said.
The New Year’s Eve officer-involved shooting, which is counted as a homicide by Oakland police, brought the total number of slayings for 2007 to 127, compared with 148 killings in 2006.
Oakland residents reported hearing celebratory gunfire throughout the city on New Year’s Eve.
In San Francisco, a man was shot and killed about 4:50 a.m. Tuesday on the 300 block of Ninth Street in the South of Market neighborhood. No arrests have been made. Two people were stabbed in a separate incident about 2 a.m. Tuesday in Washington Square in the North Beach neighborhood, and two people were arrested after a fight broke out along the Embarcadero during the fireworks display, said Sgt. Steve Mannina.
Police arrested 27 people for being drunk in public and eight people wanted on warrants, Mannina said. A road-rage incident in the Mission District led to a firearms arrest, police said.
“The New Year’s Eve officer-involved shooting brought the total number of Oakland slayings for 2007 to 127.”
Copyright 2007 The San Francisco Chronicle