A wild evening of shootings in East Oakland that began in a drugstore parking lot, spilled onto Interstate 580 and ended up in an apartment complex left one man shot dead by a police officer and two others wounded, authorities said.

The dead man, 18-year-old Kenneth Ross of Oakland, was killed when he allegedly pulled his gun on police as they tried to question him in the stairwell of an apartment complex at 2701 64th Ave., police said.

His companion, Jarone Castle, 19, of Vallejo, was wounded, possibly by gunfire, and arrested on suspicion of involvement in the earlier parking lot shooting, police said.

Investigators said they believe the pair and as many as four other men with them were members of the 211 Gang - named for the 211 penal code for "robbery" - which is suspected of a string of holdups in Oakland, Merced and Modesto. Police are still hunting for as many as a half-dozen men involved in the evening's fracases.

"There are still some very violent people out there, and we need to find them," police spokesman Officer Jeff Thomason said.

Sources identified the officers who fired their weapons as Anthony Tedesco and Kevin Kaney, who is a firearms expert for the department.

Ross had a conviction record for armed robbery and gun crimes, Thomason said. Castle has prior convictions for drugs and resisting arrest.

Thursday's shooting was the sixth involving Oakland police this year, Thomason said. Last year there were 11.

The incident is under investigation by police homicide and internal affairs and the Alameda County district attorney's office. Any officers who fired their weapons will be placed on paid administrative leave, which is standard procedure.

The clashes began at 4:56 p.m. when Ross, Castle and their companions in a maroon van got involved in either a shootout or a drive-by shooting with a blue sedan in the parking lot of a Walgreens drugstore on 33rd Avenue, police said.

After the flurry of shots there, the van sped off to I-580, where it rammed a car about 5:10 p.m. near the Edwards Street exit. The occupants of the car were not badly hurt.

While the van was stopped, the blue sedan pulled up and some men jumped out, police said.

The sedan's occupants dragged a man from the van, shot him and pistol-whipped him, police said. The attackers then fled, and a bystander took the man to Highland Hospital.

The victim, whom police have not named, was later arrested for possible involvement in the Walgreens shooting. He is expected to recover, Thomason said.

The men remaining in the van then drove to the apartment block on 64th Avenue, where a resident called police after seeing at least one emerge with a rifle.

Investigators raced to the scene, and after several officers tried to stop Ross and Castle in the stairwell, Ross was shot dead about 5:40 p.m., police said.

Ross and Castle were both carrying .45-caliber Glock semiautomatic pistols, police said. Officers also recovered an assault rifle and a pistol-grip shotgun from the van.

"There was just an absolute disregard of the public in these incidents," Deputy Chief Jeffrey Israel said. "There was apparently no fear by these shooters for the people nearby or for the witnesses, and there were plenty of witnesses."