The new year is off to a violent start in Oakland.
The city has seen a spike in homicides, one that’s been particularly bad over the course of the last week, with seven people killed in the last seven days.
"To date, our homicide division has already investigated 11 homicides, compared to one at the same time last year," Oakland Police Deputy Chief LeRonne Armstrong said in a video statement posted to Facebook.
Armstrong said gun violence in Oakland has been on the rise since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, and the city has had to alter its intervention strategies that involve direct outreach.
"We’re having to go to residences (and) practice social distancing, take all of the COVID security protocols, but also trying to still get out there into the community to begin to message people around putting down guns," he said.
The recent killings have happened in multiple neighborhoods.
The department is offering reward money of up to $10,000 for information that leads to an arrest in any of the cases. Meanwhile, the number of illegal sideshows - large gatherings of people driving recklessly and doing car stunts – is also the rise.
"We have seen a significant increase in sideshow activity with multiple shootings related to those sideshows," Armstrong added. "Those have become very violent."
Oakland recorded over 100 murders in 2020, its highest total in eight years.
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