Mother fatally shot during violent night in Oakland
OAKLAND (Noelle Walker, KTVU) - Six people were shot in Oakland between Saturday night and early Sunday morning. One of those left the 29-year old mother of a 2-year old girl dead.
Investigators don't believe the incidents are related, but they have some in the community shaking their heads.
"I came outside and I saw all the police lights," said Horace J. Houston, who lives near the deadly shooting in the 6700 block of Avenal Avenue. "There has to be something better for people to do than just go around shooting and killing each other. There has to be!"
Houston’s 29-year old neighbor Jessica Anderson was shot as she got into a car in front of her home on Avenal Avenue, headed for a concert in San Francisco.
She drove about half a mile from the scene of the shooting. She was pronounced dead at Avenal and Bancroft. "Now you have a child without a mother. A two year old child," Houston lamented. "Just a sad thing."
Five other people were shot in a 3 1/2 hour time span. Two men were injured by gunfire as they barbecued outside a home in the 800 block of 30th Street. Another unrelated shooting in left two men wounded in the 700 block of Adeline Street.
"To have six shootings in one night? It has to stop," said Pastor Joseph Cotton from Acts Full Gospel church in East Oakland. Cotton is a youth minister who works with young offenders in juvenile hall, many of whom have used guns. "We need to do something before-hand, before it gets to young people losing their life," Cotton said. “And so we just gotta get fed up and say it's time for us to change!"
Police and Crime Stoppers are offering up to a $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the shooter in Anderson’s case.
A $5,000 is being offered for information in any of the shootings where someone was wounded. Anyone with information can call police at (510) 238-3426 or Crime Stoppers at (510) 777-8572.