OAKLAND, Calif. — Two adult students and four school workers were shot and wounded at an Oakland school campus in a gang-related attack that officials said Thursday was perpetrated by at least two shooters who fired more than 30 rounds.
Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong said a student counselor, a security guard, two students and two workers who were at Rudsdale High School were wounded after two suspects breached the school and immediately opened fire around 12:45 p.m. Wednesday. He said a third suspect drove a getaway car. No arrests have been made.
“We thank God that many more students were not injured as a result of this action,” he said.
Surveillance video shows the shooters entered the school and “identified an individual or individuals that they were looking to target,” and began to fire, Armstrong said.
He said detectives are still trying to determine if any of those wounded were the intended targets.
John Sasaki, a spokesperson for Oakland Unified School District, declined to say whether the entrance door to the school was supposed to be unlocked.
Armstrong said officers didn't wait to enter the school and that when they arrived, there was a need for keys to enter certain classrooms.
“Our officers did not wait to receive keys, they used breaching tools in order to enter every classroom and conduct a thorough search of the entire campus to ensure no individuals were barricaded on the campus and the entire campus was safe," he said.
Three of the victims remain hospitalized on Thursday, two in serious condition and the other in stable condition, he said. Armstrong declined to say who remained hospitalized, citing the need to protect their safety.
Rudsdale High School has a continuation program for 16- to 18-year-old students who are at risk of not graduating from a regular high school. It also has a newcomer program that serves recent immigrants ages 16-21 who have fled violence and instability in their home countries, according to the school’s website.
Armstrong declined to say which program the wounded students attended.
Rudsdale is one of four adjacent schools located on a block in east Oakland. One of the schools has no students on campus. The other two immediately went into lockdown when reports of the shooting began, officials with the Oakland Unified School District said. Classes were suspended at all the schools on Thursday.
Asked if there have been other violent incidents at the schools, Armstrong said that in August officers made an arrest at the sprawling campus known as King Estate after an incident involving a stabbing and a firearm.
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This story has been corrected to show that The Associated Press, quoting Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, erroneously identified the location of the shooting. It was at Rudsdale Newcomer High School, not Sojourner Truth Independent Study school.
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