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(03-19) 16:28 PDT Oakland - -- Oakland police shot and killed a boy who aimed a sawed-off rifle at them Wednesday as they were patrolling an East Oakland neighborhood known for gang activity, a police spokesman said.
The boy was shot at about noon on the 7900 block of Rudsdale Street, said Officer Roland Holmgren, a department spokesman. Relatives identified him as Jose Luis Buenrostro and said he was 15 years old and lived in Oakland.
The shooting was the second fatal officer-involved shooting in Oakland since Friday, when police shot and killed a 70-year-old man pointing a replica pistol at them near the Eastmont police substation on 73rd Avenue.
"Any time an officer has to use deadly force it's extremely serious," Holmgren said.
Three officers from the Oakland police gang unit were in a patrol car in the neighborhood not far from the Oracle Arena and McAfee Coliseum when they noticed a young man walking on the sidewalk attempting to conceal a large object in his sweatpants, Holmgren said.
"He looked in their direction and they could see it was a gun," Holmgren said. "He got the gun from his pants and pointed it at the officers, who in turn used their firearms to subdue him, striking him multiple times."
The youth was taken to a local hospital, where he died from his wounds. The police declined to confirm the young man's age or identity Wednesday evening, saying his next of kin still needed to be notified.
Relatives, friends and neighbors of Buenrostro who gathered Wednesday evening at 79th Avenue and Rudsdale Street, gave a starkly different account of the incident and questioned officers' level of force.
They set out candles, roses and spilled beer on the sidewalk as part of a makeshift memorial for the 15-year-old whose blood still stained the sidewalk. Neighborhood children rode by on scooters and mothers pushed babies in strollers.
"He was walking down the street and the cops stopped and 'bam-bam' shot him up without even telling him anything," said Jesse Gonzalez, who said he was Buenrostro's cousin.
"We want to see the gun he supposedly had," said Claudia Zepeda, another cousin, whose voice faltered with emotion. "I want to see his thumbprints on it. Why didn't they talk to him, why did they have to kill him?"
Holmgren said officers appeared to act the way they were supposed to when dealing with an armed assailant.
"There's a common misconception about the use of force, especially with all the crime-related TV shows, that you can shoot an armed suspect in a leg or arm," Holmgren said. "Officers are trained to aim for the center mass, to use force that will immediately stop the threat. If they shot him in the hand, he still could have fled or, for all officers knew, sprayed a residential area with bullets."
Buenrostro was a student at an Oakland charter school focused on aviation and wanted to become a pilot, Gonzalez said. He said he didn't know Buenrostro to have any affiliation with gangs, nor to carry any weapons.
"He was a calm guy," Gonzalez said.
Buenrostro lived in the neighborhood with his parents and several siblings.
The three officers who fired shots were placed on paid administrative leave, pending the outcome of the investigation, which is standard procedure in officer-involved shootings. The shooting occurred in a working-class predominantly black and Latino neighborhood less than three blocks from Acorn Woodland Elementary School.
"This happened in broad daylight right around the corner from an elementary school," Holmgren said, adding that no one else was injured. "Who knows what would have happened had the officers not been there? They put themselves in these situations not because they want to go out and take somebody's life, but because they are trying to prevent some of the madness on the streets we've been seeing lately."
But nothing takes away the fact that a tragedy occurred, Holmgren said.
"A young person has lost his life," he said. "It's a tragedy for a neighborhood, for a family. It's also a tragedy that a teenager was walking around in the middle of the day with a rifle. I can understand the pain and anger right now."
Dottie Harnell, who has lived for 55 years in the neighborhood where Wednesday's shooting happened and is known by neighborhood children as "Granny," said she was saddened to come home Wednesday to learn one of her charges was dead.
"They could have shot him in the leg," said Harnell, who knew Buenrostro. "A life is gone now for his family and his siblings."
E-mail Christopher Heredia at cheredia@sfchronicle.com.
This article appeared on page B - 2 of the San Francisco Chronicle
The boy was shot at about noon on the 7900 block of Rudsdale Street, said Officer Roland Holmgren, a department spokesman. Relatives identified him as Jose Luis Buenrostro and said he was 15 years old and lived in Oakland.
The shooting was the second fatal officer-involved shooting in Oakland since Friday, when police shot and killed a 70-year-old man pointing a replica pistol at them near the Eastmont police substation on 73rd Avenue.
"Any time an officer has to use deadly force it's extremely serious," Holmgren said.
Three officers from the Oakland police gang unit were in a patrol car in the neighborhood not far from the Oracle Arena and McAfee Coliseum when they noticed a young man walking on the sidewalk attempting to conceal a large object in his sweatpants, Holmgren said.
"He looked in their direction and they could see it was a gun," Holmgren said. "He got the gun from his pants and pointed it at the officers, who in turn used their firearms to subdue him, striking him multiple times."
The youth was taken to a local hospital, where he died from his wounds. The police declined to confirm the young man's age or identity Wednesday evening, saying his next of kin still needed to be notified.
Relatives, friends and neighbors of Buenrostro who gathered Wednesday evening at 79th Avenue and Rudsdale Street, gave a starkly different account of the incident and questioned officers' level of force.
They set out candles, roses and spilled beer on the sidewalk as part of a makeshift memorial for the 15-year-old whose blood still stained the sidewalk. Neighborhood children rode by on scooters and mothers pushed babies in strollers.
"He was walking down the street and the cops stopped and 'bam-bam' shot him up without even telling him anything," said Jesse Gonzalez, who said he was Buenrostro's cousin.
"We want to see the gun he supposedly had," said Claudia Zepeda, another cousin, whose voice faltered with emotion. "I want to see his thumbprints on it. Why didn't they talk to him, why did they have to kill him?"
Holmgren said officers appeared to act the way they were supposed to when dealing with an armed assailant.
"There's a common misconception about the use of force, especially with all the crime-related TV shows, that you can shoot an armed suspect in a leg or arm," Holmgren said. "Officers are trained to aim for the center mass, to use force that will immediately stop the threat. If they shot him in the hand, he still could have fled or, for all officers knew, sprayed a residential area with bullets."
Buenrostro was a student at an Oakland charter school focused on aviation and wanted to become a pilot, Gonzalez said. He said he didn't know Buenrostro to have any affiliation with gangs, nor to carry any weapons.
"He was a calm guy," Gonzalez said.
Buenrostro lived in the neighborhood with his parents and several siblings.
The three officers who fired shots were placed on paid administrative leave, pending the outcome of the investigation, which is standard procedure in officer-involved shootings. The shooting occurred in a working-class predominantly black and Latino neighborhood less than three blocks from Acorn Woodland Elementary School.
"This happened in broad daylight right around the corner from an elementary school," Holmgren said, adding that no one else was injured. "Who knows what would have happened had the officers not been there? They put themselves in these situations not because they want to go out and take somebody's life, but because they are trying to prevent some of the madness on the streets we've been seeing lately."
But nothing takes away the fact that a tragedy occurred, Holmgren said.
"A young person has lost his life," he said. "It's a tragedy for a neighborhood, for a family. It's also a tragedy that a teenager was walking around in the middle of the day with a rifle. I can understand the pain and anger right now."
Dottie Harnell, who has lived for 55 years in the neighborhood where Wednesday's shooting happened and is known by neighborhood children as "Granny," said she was saddened to come home Wednesday to learn one of her charges was dead.
"They could have shot him in the leg," said Harnell, who knew Buenrostro. "A life is gone now for his family and his siblings."
E-mail Christopher Heredia at cheredia@sfchronicle.com.
This article appeared on page B - 2 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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