Oakland police Chief Sean Whent speaks during a community meeting to discuss various issues including homicide victim Chyemil Pierce, the mother who was shot dead in West Oakland while shielding her kids from gunfire, at Willie Keyes Recreation Center in Oakland on March 19, 2015. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

Chyemil Pierce was killed March 9, 2015, when she was struck by gunfire from a nearby shooting as she tried to get her children to safety near their West Oakland home, police said. (Pierce family photo)

OAKLAND -- Chyemil Pierce, 30, was shielding two of her children when she was caught in the crossfire during a shootout March 9 between gang members.

Antonio Ramos, 27, was working on a community mural when he was gunned down Sept. 29 during an attempted robbery.

Jasvir Singh, 45, was selling ice cream in East Oakland when he was fatally shot on Oct. 3 by a suspected gang member.

Arrests were made in all three slayings, which rocked the community in 2015 and were part of a bloody tally that saw the city's homicide rate rise for the first time in two years.

The final number of homicides investigated by Oakland police in 2015 was 93 -- seven more than in 2014. But the total was still far below the city's high of 175 in 1992.

Police say increases in gang-, robbery- and drug-related killings and a rise in slayings considered justifiable, resulted in the higher number in 2015. In addition, there were six double slayings -- the most in several years -- and one triple killing.

Police Chief Sean Whent said "any loss of life is tragic" and vowed that police would do everything they could to reduce the number in 2016.

Citywide, violent crime was down 4 percent in 2015. In addition, the number of nonfatal shootings declined 19 percent from 2014. Robberies also dropped 7 percent.

Mayor Libby Schaaf said she was "deeply disappointed" about the year's homicide numbers.


"Nothing pains me more as mayor than each one of these senseless losses," she said. "While it is little consolation for the families and friends of those who have lost their lives to violence in our city, we are making progress in the fight against crime. Overall, Oakland is getting safer."

Marilyn Washington Harris, who leads the highly respected victim advocacy group Khadafy Washington Foundation, said it was "depressing" to see Oakland's death toll rise.

"We've got to do all we can to bring homicides down again," said Harris, whose son, Khadafy Washington, was slain in 2000. She said getting guns out of the hands of young people would be a significant start. "They can get a gun before they can get a job," she said.

Tragedy hit close to home for outreach workers like Todd Walker at the Khadafy Foundation. Walker's 14-year-old great-nephew, Davon Ellis, a star athlete and scholar at Oakland Technical High School, was fatally shot Feb. 28 while hanging out with friends in East Oakland.

The killing was a "real, real tragedy" that has devastated the family. Davon's mother has moved to another city, and his father, David Ellis, has started his own outreach program called Von's World, to counsel and mentor young people. Walker said even with an arrest of a suspect in May, the family has not had any real closure.

Antonio Ramos, 27, was shot and killed while working on a mural at West and 35th streets in Oakland, police said. He is seen here painting one of the mural's Victorian homes. (Attitudinal Healing Connection)

"They were happy and relieved, but it still did not bring their son back," he said.

There was concern in late 2015 that the overall homicide tally might reach triple digits. But stepped-up police enforcement -- mainly Ceasefire operations -- helped prevent that, Whent said.

Oakland police, along with other law enforcement agencies including the FBI, U.S. Marshals, ATF and state and local partners, conducted major sweeps targeting known violent gangs and their members who had caught the eye of Ceasefire personnel and failed to heed admonitions to stop the violence or face jail.

Whent considers Ceasefire the department's key violent crime reduction strategy and has put more officers under the program's umbrella. There are 35 officers committed full time to Ceasefire and another 40 who assist when needed. He also assigned more officers in areas of known violence.

Whent maintains that other cities that used the Ceasefire strategy for a while but discontinued it saw their violent crime numbers go up.

An expected increase in the department's rank and file should also have an impact on crime numbers, Whent said. There are currently 723 Oakland police officers, and there should be about 780 by the end of next year. Whent's ultimate goal is 900.

The biggest jump in confirmed motives for Oakland killings was in those considered gang-related. That rose from one in 2014 to 11 in 2015. Robbery-related killings rose from three to seven and drug-related slayings from three to six.

Killings considered justified rose from six to 10, leaving the city's murder number at 83. Among the 10 were five people killed by Oakland police, the first fatal shootings by Oakland officers in 18 months, and another by Emeryville police in North Oakland. Four other non-police-related deaths were ruled self-defense.

The majority of Oakland homicide victims in 2015 were minorities -- more than 70 percent black and 16 percent Hispanic. The majority of suspects identified were also black and Hispanic, with a firearm being used in more than 90 percent of the killings.

The youngest victim was 14-year-old Davon and the oldest 59. Most homicides occurred in East Oakland, east of Fruitvale Avenue.

Oakland's homicide numbers are a sharp contrast to those of nearby Alameda County cities.

In Hayward, there were 10 homicides in 2015, one more than in 2014. Berkeley and San Leandro had one homicide each for the past year, and Fremont reported two homicides.

Oakland police Lt. Roland Holmgren said the primary motives for killings are the same as in previous years, but investigators have done more to confirm what they are. That, he says, allows police to "prevent future violence and retaliations" as well as "strategically employ our resources."

The clearance rate of cases in 2015 was 57 percent, the same as in 2014.

There were arrests made in the Pierce, Ramos and Singh killings. He pointed out that in most killings, investigators "have a good understanding of who is responsible" but still need more evidence to make the case prosecutable.

He said more clearances can be credited to having a "robust unit" of investigators, even though studies have shown the 10-detective unit is smaller than many larger departments, with each Oakland investigator averaging more cases than those in the larger departments.

He said the unit has embedded FBI agents working with it, and the department would be looking to "identify and utilize whatever resources we can" to get successful outcomes in investigations.

Being a homicide investigator, he said, is both "a blessing and a curse. It is a blessing because there is no greater calling than to represent (a victim) unable to represent themselves. It is a curse because you are scared when the phone rings and someone is telling you another life has been lost."