Around 11:15 a.m. yesterday, a man driving a large stolen van, with two passengers inside, collided with an Oakland Police Department officer at the corner of East 12th Street and 29th Avenue, leaving the two passengers dead and the driver and an officer in the hospital, police said. 

According to the OPD, and confirmed by witnesses at the scene, an Oakland Housing Authority Police Department officer “attempted to initiate an enforcement stop” of a vehicle driving recklessly in East Oakland. The OPD said the housing police officer observed the driver fail to yield and flee at high speed, but did not engage in a pursuit. 

“The vehicle continued driving recklessly and struck an uninvolved OPD vehicle traveling northbound on 29th Avenue at East 12th Street,” said an OPD spokesperson.  

An Oakland police car was wrecked when, police say, a fleeing suspect collided with the vehicle. The officer is now in stable condition, according to the Oakland Police Department. Photo: Jose Fermoso/The Oaklandside

Laura Bursch, a communications officer for the Oakland Housing Authority Police Department, told The Oaklandside that the “OHAPD officer immediately deactivated his emergency lights and siren and did not engage in a vehicle pursuit.” The OPD said the “vehicle was later confirmed to be stolen,” which Bursch confirmed. It’s not clear whether the officer who initiated the stop attempt knew at the time that the vehicle was stolen.

“Our thoughts are with the families, loved ones, and all those affected by this tragic incident,” Bursch continued. “OHAPD will continue to support OPD with the investigation and will defer further questions regarding investigative findings to the OPD.”

OHAPD headquarters is not far from the crash site, at 2525 East 12th St. There is also an Alameda County Sheriff’s office nearby at 2425 East 12th St.

Eyewitness video

The crash upended the suspect’s vehicle, ejecting the two passengers who died at the scene, according to police and eyewitnesses. Photo: Jose Fermoso/The Oaklandside

According to a video taken by an eyewitness and reviewed by The Oaklandside, in the aftermath of the collision, bystanders saw a man collapsed on the road with a severe, bloody head injury about 10 feet away from where the car came to a stop on East 12th Street, suggesting he may have been ejected from the vehicle on impact. The man is seen motionless as a police officer appears to check for a pulse. One eyewitness told The Oaklandside that the other suspect who died was ejected from the vehicle and ended up on the median, a detail OPD confirmed to the San Jose Mercury News.

The same video shows a suspect being apprehended by a police officer. The OHAPD confirmed that the suspect tried to flee the scene, and that their officers, not OPD officers, made the apprehension. 

In the video, the suspect’s damaged car is seen on its side in the middle of the road and in the nearby median, under the BART line, a loose tire and water spouting from a pipe, a sign that the vehicle may have jumped the curb after hitting the police car. The car was still in the same location and position hours later when The Oaklandside reached the scene. 

The Oaklandside has submitted a request for video of the OHAPD officer’s attempted vehicle stop to verify the statements from OPD and OHAPD that the officer had not engaged in a pursuit, as police chases have been a point of contention in Oakland over the last few years. Academic research, federal studies, and policing experts we’ve spoken to indicate that pursuits tend to make roads more dangerous. Geoffrey Alpert, a professor of criminology at the University of South Florida, told us that police chases are “like signing a death warrant.”

Law enforcement officials have not yet released the names, ages, and residences of the injured police officer and the three men in the fleeing vehicle. 

According to the OPD, paramedics on the scene transported the injured officer and the arrested suspect to local hospitals, where they are both listed in stable condition. The OPD said it’s not known whether a controlled substance played a role in the incident. OPD has asked members of the public with information about the incident to contact the traffic division at (510) 777-8570.

Neighborhood parents worried

Oakland Soccer Club boys and girls club teams were practicing on Monday night, steps away from where a violent collision killed two men and injured another suspect and an Oakland Police officer. Credit: Jose Fermoso / The Oaklandside

By Monday evening, as a strong wind took hold in East Oakland, police had cordoned off all four sides of the intersection of 29th Avenue and East 12th Street. OPD investigators were scanning the roads for debris to better understand the vehicles’ paths, according to a police officer on the scene.

About 40 feet away, at the crash scene’s perimeter, several children could be seen running during a soccer practice at the Cesar Chavez Soccer Field, located on the shared campus of International High School and Think College Now Elementary School. On the other side of the crash, on East 12th Street and Derby Avenue, is another Oakland public school, Latitude High School. There, a wide strip of brush, two tall fences, and several planters protect the campus from speeding drivers.

We spoke to some parents who had come to watch their children at practice. They told us it was upsetting to see the remains of the fatal crash, with several wondering what could have happened if it had occurred a week or so earlier, when school was in session, or during soccer practice. Several families walk to the field from nearby blocks.

“It’s like we’re numb to the violence,” said Roberto C., crossing his arms as he looked at his daughter play. “It’s deadening, man, because when you think things are getting good, there’s still some evil to deal with.”

The Oakland Soccer Club, which runs boys’ and girls’ club teams, usually meets at six in the evening at the field. Roberto told us that the crash and the dead men reminded him of why he and the other parents wanted their kids to play sports.

“We have them on the field to keep them distracted, not thinking about it, doing something else,” he said. “It’s literally at our doorstep. It’s crazy.”

A person who works in the area and arrived at the scene in the immediate aftermath of the crash, who did not want to provide their name, told us they were spooked by the collision but not totally surprised by it. “People drive crazy up and own this street,” they said. 

The Oaklandside reached out to the leadership of the nearby schools for comment on this incident and its proximity to locations where hundreds of schoolchildren play and learn. The crash site is also only about 1,000 feet away from the major transit corridor of Fruitvale Avenue, home to the Fruitvale BART station and dozens of popular restaurants and taco stands. 

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