Harry Harris
The Oakland Tribune
OAKLAND, Calif. — A sexual assault suspect with an assault rifle was killed and a police sergeant was wounded in an exchange of gunfire early Monday morning in North Oakland, authorities said.
The sergeant, whose name was not released, underwent surgery and was in stable condition at a local hospital, Oakland Police Department spokeswoman Johnna Watson said.
The shooting happened about 1:32 a.m. outside a home in the 3800 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Way, she said.
Police went to the home as part of a follow-up investigation into a sexual assault that was reported Sunday night, she said.
The sergeant and another officer were outside the house when a man who came out of the house with an assault rifle and began shooting at them immediately, Police Chief Sean Whent said at a news conference Monday morning. The rifle had an extended 30-round magazine, and much of it was used, Whent said.
He said there was no conversation between the suspect and the officers before the shooting began.
The sergeant and the other officer returned fire with their semi-automatic pistols, hitting the man, Watson said. The officers’ body cameras were activated at the time of the shooting, police said.
Both the man and the officer were taken to local hospitals, where the man died from his wounds.
Dozens of officers rushed to the scene on Martin Luther King Jr. Way near Apgar Street, not far from the MacArthur BART station. The road was closed between West MacArthur Boulevard and 40th Street in both directions Monday and was expected to closed most of the morning.
Police recovered the man’s rifle at the scene.
Whent was on the scene and visited the officer at the hospital.
Whent said at the news conference that the officer has a “significant” gunshot wound, has had one surgery and is expected to have more. He said there were multiple rounds of gunshots.
He did not name the injured sergeant or the other officer who shot the suspect, but he said the sergeant is a 14-year veteran of the department who had recently been promoted to sergeant and the other is an officer who has been on the force for a year.
The man who died, whose name was not released, was a 49-year-old Oakland resident, Whent said.
Watson would not provide details of the sexual assault.
No other details were available.
Whent said “our officers encounter dangerous situations on a daily basis and all have the potential to go bad. Fortunately it does not happen that often.”
The shooting comes two months after police shot and killed Demouria Hogg, 30, in a confrontation about an hour after he was found passed out in the driver’s seat of his car with a loaded gun near Lake Merritt. That shooting on June 6 was Oakland police’s first fatal officer-involved shooting in more than two years.
Watson said information involving Monday’s shooting was still preliminary and that multiple investigations are being conducted by the department, with a concurrent investigation by the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office.
Anyone with information on the incident is asked to call the homicide department at 510-238-3821. Tips can also be sent by texting TIP OAKLANDPD to 888777 from your cell phone followed by your tip, or by calling 855-847-7247.
Copyright 2015 The Oakland Tribune