In West Oakland, Really Tough Music Critics Open Fire on Rappers, Wounding 7, 3 Critically; 1-Year-Old Boy Clings to Life

By Nicholas Stix, from reports by Kiet Do (CBS-KPIX), Will Kane (San Francisco Gate/Chronicle), and Terry Collins (Associated Press)
 


 
CBS-KPIX reporter Kiet Do says that a rivalry between two rappers may be behind the mass shooting in Oakland, at 6:29 p.m. Monday evening, in which three hooded figures shot eight people. At press time, a 1-year-old boy, a man, and a woman are all in critical condition.

A rap group was performing by the “catering truck” shown in the video. (Not the white van, but what appears to be an old, yellow school bus.) Friends and locals were watching, and one or more observers was videotaping the performance. At least one private surveillance camera trained on the area, at State Market Liquors, caught the shooters, though not, apparently, their faces.

The three hooded shooters came around from the State Market Liquors side, and opened fire on the performers and their audience, who were clustered in the middle of the parking lot, hitting at least seven people. Some of the people at the performance fired back. None of the defensive shooters or other witnesses is cooperating with police.

Hiram Johnson was holding his 1-year-old, toddler son, also named Hiram. The father was shot in the hand, and the son in the head. The elder Johnson immediately drove his son to Children’s Hospital Oakland, where the father said the child is comatose but appears not to have suffered brain damage. Earlier today, the elder Johnson tweeted,

Right now lil cuz in coma but both sides of brain seems to be functioning right now pray pls.

All other victims were either driving themselves to local hospitals, or were being driven by friends or relatives, by the time the Oakland PD showed up.

The splice from the video made by a camera recording the performance, to the video from the State Market Liquors camera can be disorienting, as each faces in a different direction, and there are no markers common to both. However, at the beginning of Kiet Do’s WPIX report, note the Lay’s/Dorito truck parked approximately 20 yards from where the victims were shot. (Not to be confused with the white van in the video of the rap performance.) That truck looms large in the State Market Liquors video.

State Market Liquors’ co-owner Salah Abdullah said that he heard about 50 shots fired.

At this point, Oakland police have not made any arrests.

P.S. The phrase "really tough music critics" comes, of course, from my VDARE colleague, Brenda Walker.

[Thanks to reader-researcher “W.”]