OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - At least two police officers were injured and a person was shot by police during a robbery at a marijuana business in Oakland amid a late-night crime spree that included robberies of several businesses by armed people traveling in a caravan and the shooting of three men who were driving in a car, authorities said Wednesday.
The condition of the person shot has not been released. Police have not provided any more information about the person, including age or gender, the East Bay Times reported.
The two officers sustained injuries that required hospitalization, but their conditions were not known.
Police said in a news release that “officers were investigating the report of an in-progress robbery of a marijuana grow. When officers attempted to detain individuals, multiple officers were injured and an officer-involved shooting occurred.”
Oakland Police spokeswoman Officer Johnna Watson said more information would be released later Wednesday.
There were dozens of robberies or attempted robberies of marijuana and other businesses throughout Oakland Tuesday night committed by “a caravan of armed robbers,” Oakland Deputy Chief Roland Holmgren said.
In another incident, two security guards, one 52 and the other 40, were shot at during an attempted robbery at a marijuana business, authorities said. Their conditions were not available. No arrests have been made in that case.
Well before dark in downtown Oakland, the site of regular protests this year, a large police presence could be seen and several main streets were already barricaded off.
Councilman Larry Reid told the newspaper he witnessed a group of people break into a store in a shopping center and loot items. Reid said he called police at the request of a security guard. Some of the officers who arrived, he said, were then sent to the incident where the officer-involved shooting took place.
“I just think it’s crazy. People will sit and they’ll make all different kinds of excuses for the behavior of young men and women. I am not going to make any excuses for their behavior because I don’t understand it,” Reid said Wednesday. “I got people scared to sit in their living room,” who run to the back of their house every time shots are fired.
Oakland police were also investigating the shooting of three men, one 21 and the other two 22, who were shot while driving in a vehicle. Three other passengers were not injured.
The three men were in stable condition Wednesday
The victims told police they were driving when they heard gunshots and saw that they had been hit.
One of the men wounded was driving the car. He was able to drive to a hospital, where police were called.
Officers found more than a half-dozen shell casings on the street where the shooting happened. The car the victims were in had several bullet holes.
Police have not released a motive yet for the shooting and have not made any arrests
Oakland has seen a recent spike in violence with police investing 93 homicides so far this year - 87 of those classified as murders. In 2019, police investigated 78 homicides in the city.
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