Oakland Police Hope to Squelch Gang War After 6 Are Shot

OAKLAND (KCBS) – Six people were wounded, two of them critically, in what Oakland police believe was a gang-related shooting Tuesday night in East Oakland. Now, police are hitting the street to make sure there's not more retaliation in what appears to be a drug gang tit-for-tat.

Witnesses say two men with high-powered rifles opened fire on a group of five men on 89th Avenue around 9:30 p.m.

KCBS' Doug Sovern Reports:

"When officers got there it was a very chaotic scene," said Oakland police Lt. Jeff Thomason. "We located one victim who was in his house when a bullet when through the house and struck him in the back."

That man was an innocent bystander, critically wounded, as was one of the five shot on the street.

Investigators think this attack was part of an escalating gang dispute.

"What we're trying to do is stop the retaliatory shootings from taking place," said Thomason. "We saw a spike in our shootings in December, and our Violence Prevention Task Force came up with a plan last week to place officers on overtime in the hot-spot areas where we have gathered intel about shootings taking place, or shootings that are about to take place."

There's a $30,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the gunmen in this case.

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