Violence surges on Oakland streets

There were at least six people shot in Oakland Friday night, bringing the total to at least 10 people injured in shootings in just the past 36 hours, and that's violent even by Oakland's standards.

The recent surge in violence has police and citizens wondering what's prompting the recent uptick in violence.

Late Friday night, a shooting on 45th Street and International Boulevard left at least four people injured.

Police blocked off streets in the area where a large crowd gathered sometime after 10 p.m.

Three of the four victims were taken to Highland Hospital and the most seriously injured victim was taken to Eden Medical Center.

On MacArthur Boulevard and High Street, police found a bullet-riddled van earlier Friday night, but no one was inside.

An hour later at a house nearby, a victim's mother called an ambulance for her wounded son. He was expected to live.

This was not the case for one of the people shot in a Jaguar Thursday morning, or the man left dead on an Oakland street Thursday evening.

No sooner does one crime tape come down, it seems another goes up.

One resident raised in Oakland said things have definitely changed, and compared it to the wild west.

And it was wild again Friday night on International Boulevard. Just steps from where a child died last summer, a man in his 20s was shot several times in one of several shootings that night.

Business owners were matter of fact about the shooting, saying that the area has become like a war zone. "We're just here; we have to make our living you know. We have to be here; we have no other choice," said Naim Abdullah.

As for customers who might have been caught in the crossfire: "Oakland is completely out of control," said Bernard Turner of Fremont. "Nobody (is) showing no respect for nobody (else)."

Tristan Turner of Fremont had a suggestion. "You want to shoot a gun, go to the army. That's how I feel. A real man handles his business without a gun," said Turner.

But as one surveillance video showed, people were arming themselves and firing back. A taco truck vendor wounded a robber and was wounded himself Thursday.

As the shootings add up, they become a blur for a police force stretched thin.

"We've had one guy here since Tuesday night and he hasn't been home; it's been busy," said Sgt. Jim Rullamas of the Oakland Police Department. He added that he just didn't know what to make of it; sometimes there are spikes in violence.

Usually though, these spikes come in the warm summer months when more people are outside -- a side effect of the milder-than-usual winter.