The City Council has picked a heck of a time to decide to cut the size of its already understaffed police force

It’s a shooting gallery in Oakland and innocent residents are often the victims. The City Council has picked a heck of a time to decide to cut the size of its already understaffed police force. That strategy will only make things worse.

Consider 15 incidents police reported just during a recent nine-day period from June 11-19:

1. Two men, ages 19 and 48, were shot in East Oakland. Initial reports were that the men were wounded by stray bullets from a nearby gun battle.

2. Two people were injured in a drive-by shooting near the Berkeley border in North Oakland. A man and woman were driving during the middle of the day when someone fired at them from another car.

3. A 36-year-old man was driving in East Oakland with a woman passenger when someone began shooting at them from outside. The man was wounded but able to drive to a police substation where medical help was summoned.

4. A 16-year-old boy was shot at least twice while he was in a vehicle with others. Police were trying to determine if he was wounded during an exchange of gunfire between the group he was with and the occupants of another vehicle.

5. A 43-year-old tow truck driver who was in Oakland on a repossession assignment was found fatally shot inside his vehicle about a mile southeast of Lake Merritt.

6. A 46-year-old man was shot in the upper torso when he tried to resist a man on a bicycle who had demanded his cell phone and money.

7. A 16-year-old girl was shot by a person she was attempting to carjack near Kaiser Hospital.

8. A 23-year-old man waiting to get food at a taco truck about a mile southeast of Lake Merritt heard some other people arguing, heard gunfire and realized he had been shot in the arm.

9. An 8-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl were injured in an East Oakland shooting. Bullets from a gun fired in the area went through several surfaces before hitting a wooden deck near the children, causing them to be struck by fragments.

10. A 51-year-old taxi driver was wounded in the face in East Oakland by a stray bullet fired during a shootout between other people.

11. A 25-year-old man was fatally shot while driving in West Oakland. Police said he was found inside a car that crashed.

12. Two people were wounded at a homeless camp in West Oakland.

13. A 35-year-old man in East Oakland was hit in the leg by a stray bullet fired during a nearby shootout.

14. A 41-year-old woman was wounded inside her East Oakland home by a stray bullet fired outside during a shootout.

15. One person was killed and seven others were wounded in a gang-related shooting at Lake Merritt near the city’s Juneteenth celebration. Some victims were people caught in the crossfire.

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