Oakland police are still working to identify two people who opened fire on a school campus Wednesday in what police described as a “targeted” shooting resulting from gang related violence.
Six people were injured in the shooting at the King Estate campus in East Oakland, which police say was caused by “group and gang violence” and is related to ongoing violence in the city.
Investigators have seen at least two shooters on video footage of the incident. More more than 30 rounds were fired from handguns during the shooting, according to investigators.
“I am saddened yet again, as our community is the victim of gun violence,” Oakland Police Chief LaRonne Armstrong said in a news release. “The most vulnerable people in our community are our children. A school is a place where our children should not have to worry about being a victim of gun violence.”
No arrests have been made and investigators are still trying to determine the connection between the shooters and the school.
“They were intending to take some violent action against someone, but we don’t know what precipitated the initial shooting,” said Armstrong.
The six people who were shot in the incident included two students, a counselor, a campus security guard and two others who work at the school, according to Armstrong.
Two of the victims are in critical but stable condition, one is in stable condition and the other three have been released from the hospital. Armstrong declined to share whether those still hospitalized are students, citing an effort to protect their safety,
While explaining the police response to the school, Armstrong noted that keys were needed to enter locked classrooms. Officers “did not wait for keys but used breaching tools in order to enter every classroom to ensure no one was barricaded,” he said.
The shooters did not make it deep into the school but breached the front of the school and immediately began to fire, Armstrong said, adding that it does not appear that the gunmen used any tools to breach the entrance.
The Oakland Unified School District said schools on the King Estate campus were closed Thursday and will remain closed while damage is repaired, according to district spokesperson John Sasaki. There are four schools on the campus ranging from middle to high school.
“What happened yesterday was a devastating occurrence in our schools, it was a devastating occurrence in our city and frankly a devastating occurrence in our in our nation. This should not be happening in 2022,” Sasaki said.
Oakland Mayor Libby Shaaf called on members of Congress to take action on the “unbridled psychosis of violence in our country.”
“Every big city mayor is tired of having press conferences like the one that we are having right now,” she said. “We are tired of recognizing that despite the heroic efforts at local levels, that we cannot solve this epidemic of gun violence without federal action.”