Christopher Heredia
Chronicle Staff Writer
Oakland, Calif. — Police on Monday were investigating a string of weekend shootings in Oakland that killed seven men, and authorities tried to reassure residents that the city is a safe place to live and work.
“This number of killings is absolutely unacceptable,” Police Chief Wayne Tucker said. “The Oakland Police Department is taking immediate steps to try to prevent further violence from occurring.”
Police said that the weekend shootings were not random and appeared to be unrelated, and that some appeared to stem from gang and drug turf warfare. The slayings bring the city’s total homicides to 20 this year, compared with 12 at this time a year ago.
Mayor Ron Dellums on Monday urged the City Council next week to approve Tucker’s request for $7.7 million to beef up the city’s police officer recruitment drive.
The department is about 70 officers short of its authorized staffing level, and Dellums - under increasing pressure from citizens clamoring for more officers on the streets - has tasked Tucker and city personnel officials with reaching 803 by year’s end.
“We need creative and intensified efforts to get public safety officers into our neighborhoods now,” Dellums said in a statement.
More officers will be assigned to patrol city streets on weekend evenings, the chief said, and the department is placing mobile command posts, gang units and California Highway Patrol officers in North Oakland and other hot spots. Officers will also approach parolees and probationers loitering on street corners, in hopes of persuading them to undertake job training and counseling.
“Our efforts are going to be refocused so we have a much stronger presence,” Tucker said, adding that while there has been a spike in homicides, total violent crime is down in the city.
Among the victims this weekend was John Alfred Dennis Jr., 59, a popular instructor at St. Mary’s College in Moraga who also taught at City College of San Francisco. On Sunday, police arrested Troy Thomas, 43, at a beach park in San Mateo County, with Dennis’ body in his car. He told investigators he shot Dennis at the teacher’s home in Oakland and intended to dump the body.
The weekend violence began Friday in North Oakland, when police were called at about 1:20 p.m. to 58th Street and Shattuck Avenue to find 26-year-old Dwayne Griffin bleeding from multiple gunshot wounds. Griffin died after being transported to a local hospital, said Officer Roland Holmgren, a police spokesman. Police did not release any information about a suspect or motive.
Just after 10 p.m. Friday, police were dispatched to 11th and Peralta streets in West Oakland to investigate a shooting that sent two people to the hospital, one with life-threatening injuries. The other person is in stable condition. Police did not release the identities of the two victims, nor information about a motive or suspect.
At about 2:15 a.m. Saturday, officers heard gunfire near 90th Avenue and Hillside Street in East Oakland. When they arrived, witnesses led them to two people who had been shot. Both victims were pronounced dead at the scene.
One victim was identified by authorities as Juan Barnes, 34, of Hayward. Police released no information about the other victim’s identity or other details.
Early Sunday, two women and a man were shot and wounded in the parking lot of Zazoo’s Restaurant in Jack London Square, police said. The unidentified victims, who were expected to survive, were shot at 1:45 a.m. outside the restaurant, which hosts a club event with DJs every Saturday night until 1:30 a.m., according to its Web site. No arrests have been made.
Sunday at about 11 p.m., police were alerted to a shooting in the 2200 block of 64th Avenue in East Oakland. When they arrived, they found Dwayne Lidell Walker, 51, of Oakland bleeding from gunshot wounds. Paramedics were unable to revive him.
Just after midnight on Monday morning, police were called to the 1100 block of 62nd Street in North Oakland. When police arrived, they found Sedric Dennis, 42, of Oakland dead.
A few minutes later, at about 12:30 a.m., gunfire erupted at a Quik Stop convenience store in the 2400 block of Fruitvale Avenue. When police arrived, they found Oakland resident Romeo Mendez-Martin, 28, mortally wounded by gunfire.
The spate of violence rattled nerves among residents and merchant groups.
“It’s scary,” said Shari Godinez, who owns a children’s store in the city’s Dimond district. “Everyone is concerned with the quality of life. It’s not something you want to have to worry about, being shot on the street.”
The Oakland Merchants Leadership Forum, a nonprofit group, is hosting a forum on safety in commercial districts on Feb. 27. Godinez said she hopes that more merchants will join commercial district watch groups, and that Oakland police brass will commit to assigning walking officers to more commercial corridors. “The No. 1 concern for commercial districts is safety,” Godinez said.
Police ask that anyone with information about any of the shootings call the Oakland police homicide division at (510) 238-3821.
Copyright 2008 The San Francisco Chronicle