Burglar shoots at witness

Oakland Police is asking citizens and neighbors to review their video footage in relation to a burglary that escalated into a shooting, morning Friday April 27, 2012 at 10:00 am.

3 young men in a Black Chevy Trailblazer burglarized a house on Thornhill drive between Armour Drive and Snake Rd.

The occupant left the house shortly before 10:00 am and burglars entered the house around 10:00 am leading to speculation that the burglars had had the house under observation waiting for the occupants to leave.

During the quick burglary an Ipod, Ipad, and jewelry was taken.

Contractors working nearby observed the burglary shortly after 10:00 and called the Police. As the burglars were leaving they saw the witnesses and shot at them, hitting their car. Police records the shot a fired at 10:17 am. The Oakland Police responded with 3 units.

The Police is looking for License plates and images of the vehicle and occupants, from anyone with a camera pointed at Snake Rd. (Unfortunately our cameras are not pointed at Snake Rd.).

Police reports that the vehicle description matches descriptions from other burglaries in the area.

Here is the sparse news coverage:

http://piedmont.patch.com/articles/burglars-shoot-at-witness-in-montclair?ncid=newsltuspatc00000001

Man walking dog shot in Oakland hills last night.

A man was shot last night @ 10:30 while walking his dog on Elverton (1st road north of Snake road) in a part of Oakland hills far from the high crime areas of Oakland.

He had just returned to his front yard when his dog started barking, and he saw two young men approach in hoodies. They said, “hold it there”, then threatened with a gun, when the victim turned and ran to his house he was shot.

The shot penetrated his arm and broke the bone, which is lucky, considering that the perpetrators was probably not aiming for his arm.

Police response time for 1 of the 3 responding officers has initially been given as 20 minutes by a neighbor to the shooting. (I am trying to establish how long it took for the first Officer to arrive)

The Elverton neighborhood has a video surveillance group, they are currently assembling their footage.

When a violent crime happened in our neighborhood last year we decided as a group that:

Never Again, will a violent criminal enter or leave our neighborhood undetected.

This Blog is to show that it is possible to put up resistance when criminals terrorize your neighborhood, as long as people come together and stand united.

=================== UPDATE APRIL 18, 2012 =========================

Oakland PD’s Captain Israel has sent me the following timeline of the police response, showing a quick and appropriate response from Oakland Police:

10:35 pm              crime happens
10:39 pm              victim calls OPD Dispatch
10:40 pm              three officers (lights and siren response) and paramedics are assigned to the call – victim is met and provided emergency medical treatment for his wound at the scene
11:05 pm              another officer is assigned to meet the victim at the hospital per the field supervisor (victim was transported via ambulance).

I had a good talk today with the Investigating officer. He told me that based on the facts, the  case is treated as a an assault with a firearm as defined in California’s Penal code section 245, and not as a Robbery under section 213.

The Elverton neighborhood watch video group did capture the vehicle of the shooters. But unfortunately only on an older analog system that could not provide a clear night image of the vehicle’s license plate. Please subscribe to this blog via the front page to learn how our group managed to capture license plates in the darkest part of the night.

Another video system in a different part of town did catch an image of a suspect but the image was lost due to a 3 day video retention policy, and the investigating officer didn’t learn about the recording until the fourth day. This just goes to show the importance of a long image retention policy.

=================== UPDATE APRIL 28, 2012 =========================

The first officer at the scene arrived 10:56 PM -17 minutes after the 911 call.

With the current Police staffing situation in Oakland, we cannot expect the police to arrive in time to catch the Criminals, we need to have a system that can clearly identify perpetrators, day and night.