Oakland Police Chief Decries ‘Horrific’ Shootings After 5 Killed in 3 Days

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Gabrielle Lurie / The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty

Oakland Police Department Chief LeRonne Armstrong has decried what he calls a “horrific” series of shootings in the city after five people were murder in three days, bringing the total number of homicides this year to 83, near last year’s pace.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported Monday:

Each day’s incidents were believed to be unrelated to one another but have raised tensions in the city.

Last year at this time, Oakland had 84 homicides on its way to its highest homicide toll in more than a decade at 123.

The deadly shootings started Friday evening at about 7:30 p.m. in the 2800 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Way in West Oakland when police found two men had been shot and another riding a bicycle had been struck by a car, possibly fleeing the scene, and killed.

The article listed the names of those killed: Capri Anderson, 22; Maurice Wilson; Devin Woodfox, 36; Tyrod Banks, 46; and Tonnell Williams, 48.

As Breitbart News reported, Chief Armstrong was outspoken last year in his criticism of the “defund the police” movement when the Oakland City Council cut $18 million from the police department budget and redirected it to other priorities.

President Joe Biden campaigned on “redirecting” police funding, while later claiming he campaigned on funding the police.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

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