Oakland taco truck shootout wounds 2 OAKLAND

A robbery attempt at an Oakland taco truck ended in a shootout early Thursday that wounded the taco vendor and an assailant, the latest in a spate of holdups involving food trucks in the city, police said.

The shootout happened at the Tacos el Mazatlan taco truck at Fruitvale Avenue and Foothill Boulevard in the Fruitvale neighborhood just after 1:30 a.m.

Two men walked up to 32-year-old Omar Casillas, one of the owners of the truck, as he was cleaning up and demanded money, police and an employee said. One of them pointed a gun.

Casillas produced a gun of his own, and both men shot each other, police said. Casillas keeps a bullet-resistant vest with him in the truck but was not wearing it when he was shot, acquaintances said.

Casillas, who owns the truck with his two older brothers, was taken to a hospital. The shooting suspect, Shean Ward-Morris, 19, of Oakland, fled but later showed up at a hospital for treatment and was arrested, police said. Both he and Casillas suffered non-life-threatening wounds.

Officers also arrested two other suspects, Ward-Morris' brother, Antoine Ward-Morris, 18, and a 17-year-old boy, police said. The 17-year-old's name was withheld because he is a minor.

Taco trucks that stay open late have previously been the target of robbers in Oakland, sometimes with deadly results. Most recently, 5-year-old Gabriel Martinez Jr. was shot and killed at his family's taco truck at 54th Avenue and International Boulevard on Dec. 30.

"The Oakland Police Department has increased patrols," said Officer Johnna Watson, a police spokeswoman. "We are aware that we are starting to see numerous robberies taking place at taco trucks."

Maria Romero, 22, who works at the Tacos el Mazatlan truck, said that "everybody thinks we're here all day, we have money - it's not true. You know how the economy is right now."