THE HONORABLE SHENG THAO • MAYOR OF OAKLAND
CITY HALL • 1 FRANK H. OGAWA PLAZA • OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA 94612 • (510) 238-3141 • SThao@OaklandCA.Gov
"I am heartbroken about yet another senseless shooting in our city. Committed community leaders, residents and public safety agencies have worked so hard to end gun violence and yet now more families will feel this pain.
I’d like to thank Chief Allison and his team for their work on this case. I know he and the Department are doing everything they can to get the facts on this case. They work tirelessly every day to make our city safer and I know how hard it is on them, as it is on all of us, when something like this occurs.
And I’m grateful for our representatives from Ceasefire and District 6 Councilmember Jenkins for their collaboration as well. The best way to keep our communities safe is to prevent crime from occurring and I want to thank every single city leader for their dedication to that goal.
This is the third mass shooting in California in less than a week. This is the 39th mass shooting in America so far in 2023. This problem isn’t unique to our state. But it is unique to our nation. This has to end. It has to end. We must deal with the proliferation of guns on our streets at every level of government.
How many times do we have to look at the front page of our papers or turn on the morning news to see someone else lost their life? Far too many. I think of my son who has never known a time when these shootings were not occurring in our schools, in our churches, in dance halls and on our streets. It has to end.
I appreciate the Oakland Police Department, Oakland Department of Violence Prevention, and our staff and volunteers with Ceasefire for all the work they do to end violence and solve these crimes when they occur. But we need the national leaders who block sensible action on guns to stop the obstruction. Stop and think about the lives lost. And then act.
This is our fight and we must fight on."