Oakland police arrest armed suspect hours after shootout near Manzanita Park

OAKLAND, Calif. - Oakland police on Sunday afternoon found and arrested an armed suspect after he allegedly threatened to kill a woman, fired at officers at Manzanita Park and fled into the surrounding neighborhood before being arrested nearly five hours later.

"I saw tons of cop cars, and they kept coming, kept coming, more and more and more cop cars," said neighbor Rebecca Kaplan. "They were loud, I mean I’m a block away from the park and it was bang, bang…like about seven shots."

Man threatens to kill woman

What we know:

The Oakland Police Department announced just after 12:35 p.m. that officers were working an unspecified "critical incident" in the area of East 30th Street and 23rd Avenue.

Just before 1:55 p.m., OPD Chief James Beere provided an update explaining officers were called to the area about 10:30 a.m. after receiving multiple reports of a man threatening to kill a woman near the Manzanita Recreation Center.

Beere said the suspect immediately began shooting at officers who arrived at the scene, prompting the officers to return fire.

No one was reported injured in the shooting, but the suspect fled into the surrounding neighborhood.

Searching the neighborhood

What's next:

Police were able to take the woman who was being threatened to a safe area before authorities established a perimeter in the area in order to search for the armed suspect.

"We do know at one point, you know, he was jumping back and forth in backyards. The community was constantly in touch with us. They were providing us with surveillance camera footage that was very crucial to allow us to contain him within the perimeter," Beere said at a news conference.

OPD found the suspect hiding in an abandoned house, though Beere said he began throwing incendiary devices – lit cans with flammable liquid – at police before he ultimately attempted to set fire to the house. 

Resident Droid Galluci sent up a drone to capture smoke billowing from the home which he shared with KTVU. On Monday morning, the house looked pretty damaged from the fire. 

Authorities evacuated surrounding residences before moving in and arresting the suspect. Police reported the abandoned house suffered only minimal damage due to the fire.

The suspect, whose name was not released, suffered minor injuries due to the fire. No other injuries were reported.

As for charges, those have not yet been submitted to the Alameda County District Attorney.

"He obviously had some pretty violent tendencies and he was out to hurt people today," Beere said. "Obviously, you shoot at the police officers, threaten to kill a woman and then you burn down a house…Those charges are the basic ones we are going to stick with right now. But there's going to be so many by the time they end up thoroughly investigating this incident."

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