Three people died in three homicides in Oakland in less than 48 hours, police said Monday.
A man was fatally stabbed Friday morning in the 1500 block of Ninth Street. Friday night a female employee shot to death a male employee in the 500 block of Julie Ann Way. The shooting was reported at 10:36 p.m.
Saturday night a man died in a shooting that was reported at 10:21 p.m. at School Street and Pleitner Avenue near Curt Flood Field.
Forty-one homicides have occurred in the city since the beginning of the year, the same amount as this time last year, according to police data. But shootings are up 28 percent to 213 so far in 2020, the data show.
“Oakland Police Officers are striving to deal with a significant upsurge in violent crime," Oakland Police Officers' Association president Barry Donelan said in a statement.
But police data released Monday show that Oakland's violent crime index is virtually unchanged from a year ago. Through July 19, 3,141 violent crimes had been reported, compared with 3,136 during the same period last year.
Oakland's City Council on Tuesday will decide whether to cut the Police Department budget more. Some groups have said that the public wants more cuts and shifts of police funding to housing and mental health services.
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Donelan suggested that as the Oakland City Council weighs more cuts to the Police Department budget, councilmembers should "take account of the bloodshed going on and the impact of violence on residents and businesses."
"Our City's most vulnerable communities are impacted," Donelan said.
Interim police Chief Susan Manheimer and Donelan have said that the Police Department has already been defunded and that police resources are stretched thin already.
