Thugs Shoot at Police after Street Killing

More than 100 Oakland police worked overtime during the Labor Day holiday weekend, according to deputy police chief Dave Kozicki. However, the extra police presence was not yet in place at 2:24 a.m. Saturday morning, Sept. 1. Three people driving home from a party got caught in a sideshow at 90th and Bancroft Avenues. Shooting broke out, and a 22-year-man in the vehicle was killed.

Sgt. Jill Encinias, who supervises police in the area, told KTVU news, "Every weekend we have the same problem.... On Fridays we don't have a sideshow detail, so all these cars come out and there is only my squad and District 5 squad which is 10-16 officers to deal with the crazy drivers. ... There are tons of accidents, tons of shooting happening every weekend."

On Saturday evening at 11:38 p.m., Rita Cortez, 20, was caught in a burst of shots and pronounced dead within an hour. Thugs challenged police for control of the street by firing from a block away at the first officers to arrive on the scene. The officers ducked for cover and "heard bullets whiz over our heads," Sgt. Encinias told an Oakland Tribune reporter.

Also killed on Saturday, just before 7 p.m., was Tomas Melero-Smith, who was standing outside a house on 94th Ave. after a day of staffing a booth at the Art & Soul festival promoted by City Hall. Melero-Smith was employed by the Parks and Recreation Department, as is his older sister.

The killings brought year-to-date homicides in Oakland to 91. With four months of the year to go, the total is almost sure to exceed 100 in the first year of mayor Dellums' term of office. Behind the homicides, however, is a growing wave of violent robberies, auto theft and vandalism, and the endless disruption of "boom cars." The breakdown of peace on the streets prevails across most of the flatlands districts in north, west, and east Oakland, and even reaches into the Montclair district in the hills.

Oakland needs at least 1,100 officers, and we need them all 365 days of the year.