Violence takes toll

Support for Oakland’s pledge to cut police budget in half dwindles as homicides surge

The pastor knew this scene too well: A body on the asphalt. Lines of yellow tape. Children pointing at police choppers, low overhead. Jose Rojas sighed wearily. “I pray for this city every day,” he said.

It was the afternoon of Oct. 14, and the pastor recognized the slain man as 19-year-old Jorge Martinez, his former Sunday school student. The teenager and a few other young men had started fighting on 84th Avenue near Birch Street, a pocket of East Oakland where kids zip around on bicycles and neighbors lean over picket fences. One man whipped out a gun and began shooting.