OAKLAND, Calif. -- Just how dangerous have Oakland's streets become?

While police officers were gathering evidence at a shooting scene early Sunday at a birthday party that left one man dead and a woman hospitalized, gunfire erupted just a block away and in clear view of their patrol cars with their lights flashing.

Autoprities said the trouble began when 29-year-old Armando Gonzalez beat up a man who was harassing a woman at the party early Sunday morning.

The man who was beaten retrieved a gun and opened fire on Gonzalez as he and his 20-year-old cousin walked away from the house.

Gonzalez died at the scene.

His cousin was taken to a local hospital where police say she was in critical but stable condition with non-life-threatening wounds.

Her name has not been released, but investigators say she was not the woman who was being harassed.

As officers were securing the murder scene, gunfire erupted about a block away. Cars fleeing the scene at a high rate of speed were clearly seen on videotape taken at the time, but no other victims were discovered.

Police said there had been no arrests in the shooting and no description of the suspect had been released.

Meanwhile, homicide investigators were trying to unravel the details around an unrelated double slaying Saturday afternoon.

Officers responded to a 911 call around 3 p.m. in the 1800 block of 25th Street. Both victims were pronounced dead at the scene and police were trying to determine if the slayings were a double murder or a murder-suicide.

The weekend deaths raised Oakland's homicide rate to 50 for the year.