Latest news with #OaklandPolice
CBS News
3 days ago
- CBS News
Shooting at illegal Oakland nightclub leaves 1 dead
Oakland Police said that a person was shot and killed at an illegal nightclub early Sunday morning. The shooting happened around 3:45 a.m. at an illegal nightclub that was operating after hours, police said. Officers were alerted to the shooting by a ShotSpotter activation and responded to the 900 block of 85th Avenue. Police said they found one victim injured and that they were pronounced dead at the scene. Police said dozens of people at the nightclub were detained, and homicide detectives would be doing a follow-up investigation into what led to the shooting. Oakland police said the victim's identity would be released once next of kin were notified.
CBS News
28-06-2025
- CBS News
Oakland's public safety issues are tied to ongoing budget crisis, report says
For nearly a decade, Osvaldo Sanchez has weathered break-in after break-in at his restaurant, Agave Uptown, in Oakland. Between 2016 and 2024, the business has been targeted 22 times. "We changed the locks," Sanchez said, noting it's been about a year since the last incident. "But it's not because crime has changed, it's because we changed the locks." Each break-in costs Sanchez thousands of dollars, replacing shattered windows and doors, not to mention the hit to customer traffic and morale. Now, a new report by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute points to a deeper problem: Oakland's public safety issues are directly tied to its ongoing budget crisis. "Oakland can't get out of its budget crisis if it doesn't first solve its public safety crisis," said Jeff Bellisario, executive director of the Bay Area Council and one of the report's authors. According to Bellisario, the underfunding of the Oakland Police Department has ripple effects far beyond law enforcement. "What that poll found was more than half of Oakland residents are actually leaving the city to do their shopping," he explained. "Nearly three-quarters of East Bay residents say they avoid Oakland's restaurants, bars, and entertainment options because they don't feel safe." The report outlines 13 recommendations, including loosening certain police oversight restrictions and increasing funding for the Oakland Police Department, steps that Sanchez believes could protect small businesses like his. "If you made it more secure on the streets, more police outside, I think that's also going to help a little bit in terms of robberies," Sanchez said. "More secure, you know, more secure for the city." For Sanchez, that change can't come soon enough.
CBS News
26-06-2025
- CBS News
Missing Oakland woman last seen in Stockton believed to be sex trafficking victim
The FBI announced a reward for helping find an Oakland woman who went missing in January and is believed to possibly be a sex trafficking victim, Oakland Police said. Heaven Desiree McGee has been missing since Jan. 20, 2025. Police said McGee's mother last saw her on Jan. 17 in Oakland. She was then seen in Stockton on Jan. 20 and has not been seen since, Oakland Police Acting Deputy Chief Nicholas Calonge said. Oakland Detective Bradley Sides said the area where she was last seen in Stockton was a commercial corridor. "We know that someone in that area saw something. Whatever the detail is, however small it is, it could aid us in our investigation," Sides said. FBI Special Agent in Charge Sanjay Virmani said evidence has led them to believe she is a sex trafficking victim, and it is the reason why she was in Stockton. McGee's mother reported her missing to the Oakland Police on Jan. 26, Calonge said. The FBI said she has ties to Oakland, San Jose and Stockton. Help bring Heaven McGee home. She was last seen in Stockton on 1/20/25.@FBISanFrancisco is offering a $10,000 reward in this case. Please contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI (225-5324). You can also submit a tip online at or call OPD at 510-238-3641 — Oakland Police Dept. (@oaklandpoliceca) June 26, 2025 She is a 21-year-old Black woman, 5 feet tall and about 140 pounds, with brown eyes and black hair. She was last seen wearing a white jacket and brown pants. According to the FBI, she has several tattoos. The words "Aaron Pryor" above a red rose that is below her left collarbone Unknown words above her left and right collarbone At least four butterfly tattoos on her chest/sternum "Possible Chinese characters on her left forearm just above her wrist" The words "Darius III" on her right posterior forearm McGee's mother spoke at the FBI and Oakland Police joint press conference. "She disappeared out of my life in January. Never to be seen or heard from," she said. "I will never stop searching for my baby until I know exactly where my daughter is. Me and the rest of the family will be highly appreciative to the person who leads me to my daughter's whereabouts." "Thank you to Oakland and the surrounding cities at large for all your help in regards to helping me find my baby Heaven," she said. Anyone with information is asked to call the FBI at 1-800-225-5324. A tip can be submitted online at or people can call OPD at 510-238-3641 The FBI has offered up to a $10,000 reward for information that helps finding her.
San Francisco Chronicle
24-06-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
They split time between California and New York. What bicoastal living looks like for these workers
Ari Takata-Vasquez often wakes up in her bed not knowing where she is. In May, she arose to what she believed to be the sound of an Oakland Police officer blasting a message from a cruiser outside her downtown apartment and thought to herself, 'They're always doing too much.' But she wasn't in Oakland. She was in New York, hearing the loudspeaker announcements from the school across from her Brooklyn apartment. Timezone dysphoria is just one of the quirks of bicoastal living. Splitting her time between the two places, Takata-Vasquez is part of a larger, and growing, movement of younger workers dividing their time between California and New York. 'I go back and forth every three weeks — and it is a lot of traveling, but it's really worth it for me,' said Hyungi Park, a tattoo and incense artist who's been living bicoastally for over a year, between Los Angeles and New York. 'It's kind of a dream.' To be sure, wealthy people who can afford multiple homes have been living on both American coasts for decades, but these folks don't have the resources for that. They're often freelance artists or creatives who run small businesses. Since the pandemic, the number of people who live over 50 miles from their place of work has more than doubled, said Nicholas Bloom, an economics professor at Stanford and an expert on remote work — which Bloom said is here to stay. But this is something different — not just rich tech workers taking advantage of work from home options but creatives who feel tied to both places for careers and community. And more are following their example. 'I would like to stay in New York for six months at a time and then come back to the Bay,' said Chelsea Calalay, 30, an Oakland jeweler who's actively looking to sublet in New York for next year. 'I feel like I have to chase where my customers are.' Still, it's not an easy commute. With a distance of around 2,500 miles between them, two of the most expensive real estate markets in the world and one-way tickets that are often hundreds of dollars, California and New York are tough places to split your time. But Park, 29, who was born in Texas and raised in North Carolina, has found a setup that works for her: She lives and works in the two places, but she only pays for housing in one. Her partner pays for their Brooklyn apartment, while Park has a home in Glendale, which has a storefront for her wares and tattooing in the front. Takata-Vasquez, 34, a muralist who owns the design company Viscera Studio and grew up in Hawaii, has spent springs and falls at her apartment in Brooklyn and summers and winters at her apartment in Oakland for the last three years. 'I just sublet where I'm not,' she said, adding that having apartments in two of the most in-demand realty markets means she can usually find tenants. To her point, in the last year, membership to the home-swapping platform Kindred has grown by a factor of seven to 150,000 people across North America and Europe, said founder and San Francisco local Justine Palefsky. 'New York City is our most popular city, followed by San Francisco and Los Angeles,' said Palefsky, who noticed that a significant part of Kindred's membership are artists. 'And the number one most requested route is L.A. to New York, as well as New York to San Francisco.' Electronic musician and composer Amma Ateria, 42, who grew up in Hong Kong and New York, has been living bicoastal since the pandemic by splitting time between her brother's place in San Francisco, a friend's home in Albany, Calif., and her aunt's place in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn. The lifestyle is not without its challenges, she said. 'I hate packing so much that I start crying because I'm so sleep-deprived,' Ateria said. 'Trying to sustain those two lives is quite difficult, but I'm trying to do it gracefully.' In spite of the long travel hours, costs and time zone disorientation, all three artists don't want to give up either coast. In fact, they say they need each place to sustain themselves professionally and emotionally. In late May, Ateria had returned to San Francisco after an immersive tea ceremony performance in New York that necessitated long rehearsal and performance hours. She said the Bay Area is where she can rest, be a homebody and hunker down with her music. But New York has most of the venues that support her career. It's also where she feels more challenged, creatively. 'I definitely have to go inward a lot, and I need a lot of sunlight,' she said. 'I think because I studied music here (in the Bay Area), I've always had a sense of discipline and polishing things here — and then New York is where I share them.' Despite moving with the seasons, Takata-Vasquez still feels connected to her communities on both coasts, where she's also been cultivating networks for her work as a designer. 'My dad's originally from New York, and whenever I come here I feel closer to the Black Puerto Rican side of my family,' she said. 'I've also lived in the Bay for 17 years, and I feel a lot of kinship between Oakland and Brooklyn.' Living in two places may sound as glamorous as it is difficult, but Park, who has customer bases and industry connections on both coasts, said the opposite is true: it's less glamorous but more doable than people might think, thanks to the rise of apartment swapping and airline mileage deals through credit cards. By May, she'd already taken 12 flights between New York and L.A. this year, during which she mostly worked on her laptop. 'People always ask me, 'New York or L.A.?'' she said. 'And I'm like, 'They're so different that you really can't pick, and the beauty of bicoastal is that they balance each other.'' In the relative quiet and spaciousness of her L.A. neighborhood, Park is more focused, relaxed. But in New York there's a spontaneity and chaos she loves. 'I really get the best of both worlds,' she said. 'And honestly, I think I'm going to try to hold onto being bicoastal for as long as possible.' Besides the Schrödinger's cat-esque experience of waking up in one of two places, there's another odd quirk to being bicoastal: doubles of everyday objects. Park, for instance, has identical teapots sitting some 2,500 miles apart. They're both round like clay moons, left-handed like Park and consistent parts of her morning ritual, which begins with a sip of milky oolong or Japanese green tea. In May, Park's New York teapot slipped out of her hand and shattered in the kitchen sink, breaking the symmetry of her twin lives. She'll order another one soon.
CBS News
24-06-2025
- CBS News
US Marshals task force increasing Oakland presence to help with felony warrants
The U.S. Marshals Service will be increasing its presence in Oakland to help with the Police Department's Summer Safety Plan, the agency said on Monday. Its Pacific Southwest Regional Fugitive Task Force will be working with Oakland officers for several weeks to enforce felony warrants, the US Marshals Service said. Those warrants will be state and local ones related to burglary, assault, possession of firearms, failure to appear, probation violations and other crimes, the agency said. They also said that their warrant enforcement will not be related to immigration. "Considering heightened tensions with federal enforcement activities in California, and to ease concerns of citizens, we want to inform the community that the warrants being served do not have a nexus to immigration," said the US Marshals Service in a press release. Oakland Police's Summer Safety Plan was announced on June 12 and went into effect on June 13. The plan moved Special Resource Section officers to Ceasefire, an outreach program. Foot patrol officers are working alongside the Patrol Division to better response times and increase police visibility in the city's business districts, the press release says. The city said police will also be focusing on targeted enforcement, which is what the Marshals Service will be helping with, alongside the California Highway Patrol and other local agencies. The Police Department is also conducting undercover investigations to arrest people who are connected to human trafficking.
