Two men in critical condition among seven shot in Oakland

Seven men were wounded, two critically, Monday evening in a shooting rampage in East Oakland, police said.

The men were all between the ages of 23 and 31, according to the Oakland Tribune.

The gunfire was first reported shortly after 6 p.m. between 96th Avenue and Olive Street. A second scene was cordoned off a short time later at 94th Avenue and Sunnyside Street, the paper reported.

The motive for the shooting was unknown. Five of the victims were expected to survive.

“This is really kind of outrageous,” Oakland Police Chief Sean Whent told the Tribune from the scene. “Six o’clock at night isn’t that late at night. [There were] a fair number of rounds fired out here out, so [this is] really pretty brazen stuff on the street corner at that time of day.”

Whent said it was possible that some of the people shot by the spray of gunfire were not even targeted, the newspaper reported. It was unclear whether the shooter or shooters were on foot or in a vehicle.

According to the Tribune, a large group of people were out on the street, with residents saying there was a barbecue in the neighborhood. The newspaper quoted an unidentified witness who said he saw a man shot in the neck as he walked down the street with children.

Police scanner traffic caught some of the chaos as police responded to 96th and Olive. An officer referred to one man drifting in and out of consciousness, shot in the neck.

Police rushed to find other victims, with officers reporting one man shot in the leg and foot.

As of September, there were more than 3,000 gun crimes this year in Oakland, a city with a population just short of 400,000 and a reputation of being one of the state’s most dangerous.

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Twitter: @hbecerraLATimes

hector.becerra@latimes.com