OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) — City of Oakland and Oakland Unified School District officials provided an update Thursday on the King Estate campus shooting on Wednesday.
Police say six adults were injured after a shooting on the school’s campus in East Oakland, which is home to several schools.
At the press conference, Chief LeRonne Armstrong said the six people shot had a connection to the campus and were over 18.
Violence prevention advocates call for action after Oakland campus shooting
He says two of the victims are in serious condition. One victim is in stable condition but the exact condition is unknown.
Three other victims were released from the hospital.
Of the six victims, two of them are students, one victim is a counselor, one is a security guard and two are school staff.
Chief Armstrong says there are at least two shooters and another accomplice linked to this case, “but there may have been more of them,” he said.
Chief says there were over 30 bullets fired on campus. “It’s completely unacceptable,” he said.
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He confirms that the shooting is likely gang related. But no arrests were made.
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaff said “we have to do better” at Thursday’s press conference, calling for federal gun control action.
“We need to keep asking the people who have the most power to change, like what happened yesterday (Wednesday), to take this action,” she said.
ABC7 I-Team reporter Dan Noyes tweeted Thursday that school administrators had texted victims of Wednesday’s shooting in Oakland, telling them not to cooperate with police. That’s according to law enforcement sources, confirmed by a former Oakland City Council member, Noyes wrote.
BayTech School posted on Instagram Wednesday night identifying one of the victims as a school security guard. Officials thankfully said he did not sustain fatal injuries and is expected to survive.
Oakland Unified released a statement late Wednesday saying there will be no school on campus Thursday.
ABC7 News spoke to a parent who was on the scene picking up her 4-year-old daughter from elementary school. “You hear about this all the time…this is the closest to home. It’s a surreal feeling and you freak out, you just want to get to your daughter,” the parent said. He said he was lucky his young daughter had no idea what was going on.
Tonyia Carter of Youth ALIVE! spoke to ABC7 News reporter Lyanne Melendez as the students waited for their parents at a nearby church.
“We’re confused, we’re worried,” Carter said. “Not only that, we’re p***d off, because the people who have to be on the ground and on the streets and in schools aren’t the ones being funded for this work. So we’re p***d off. *d off, baffled and all, because that kind of stuff might have stepped in. You have to have people in those schools and on those campuses that those kids are connected with.
VIDEO: Young activist furious at East Oakland campus shooting
On Thursday, OUSD Board Chairman Gary Yee said board members had been in various meetings throughout the morning to address this violence and were reviewing the security measures, not just on the campus of Rudsdale High School (part of the King Estate campus) but at each of their schools.
“Getting the people most responsible for crime off the streets is the most important part and that’s not happening, judges are not keeping them in jail,” said Brenda Grisham, chair of the Violence Prevention Coalition. from Oakland. “They have to sit down, because if you put them in jail the first time, they can’t commit the second crime.”
With a string of nine homicides across the city in the days leading up to this mass shooting, Grisham says it shouldn’t just be the city’s problem and she says everyone can play a part.
WATCH: ‘He’s a hero’: Parent describes security guard among 6 shot dead on Oakland school campus
“These killers have mothers and fathers, they have families, and you should be able to reach out to your children and it’s not just the children, it’s also the adults, so your brothers, your sisters or whatever either, you know it starts at home and we just don’t get that piece of the puzzle and we should,” she said.
Acting Superintendent Aguilera said in a statement emailed to the district, “It pains me that our world has come to a point where this type of behavior is considered acceptable by anyone, including those who perpetrated this horrific act… This incident doesn’t define OUSD, and it doesn’t define Oakland.”
“We must all come together as one community: our schools and our city, families and city residents, faith communities and nonprofits to collectively create a safe and healthy Oakland, and impress those who adopt. this type of behavior that there is always another way,” Aguilera said.
Grisham thinks the district needs more security protocols, such as metal detectors.
“With more incidents happening, it will open their eyes to what they are missing and hopefully they will make the adjustments,” Grisham said.
According to Rudsdale High’s website, many enrolled students are immigrants who have recently fled their home countries due to violence. “The majority of them work to support themselves and their families while pursuing a high school diploma,” the website says. “Due to their migratory experiences, our students have faced many traumas.”
The students are all between the ages of 16 and 21 and first navigate the systems in the United States as teenagers.
The shooting comes a day after Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong announced new measures to address gun violence.
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“That’s a problem. In 2021 and 2022, we’ve seen almost double the number of violent crime victims that we see here at our facility,” says James Jackson, CEO of Alameda Health System.
“Something changed. I’m a son of Oakland. I grew up in Oakland. It’s not the Oakland I grew up in,” Jackson says. “We have to do it differently. We have to do something better.”
” Enough is enough. This must stop! says Keith Brown, president of the Oakland teachers’ union, the Oakland Education Association.
He says gun violence is not limited to Oakland. He calls it a national crisis. He adds that more investment is needed in students and staff.
“Making sure we have mental health professionals at all school sites,” says Brown, and that “all adults on campus are fully trained and have all the resources to defuse violence in any type of situation. that can happen on campus.”
AUDIO: Police respond to initial reports of Oakland school shooting
“Whoever would engage in this realizes that there is always a better choice to be made. It is the wrong choice under all circumstances,” said John Sasaki, spokesman for the Oakland Unified School District.
Sasaki calls on city leaders, religious groups, and nonprofits to come together to end gun violence.
“It’s been a tough year in Oakland, but that doesn’t define us. It doesn’t define the school district. It doesn’t define the city,” Sasaki says.
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