It was supposed to have been a simple gesture of respect.

Rachael Green, 19, who just graduated from high school, was among a group of young people who gathered at a West Oakland vigil Tuesday night for a schoolmate slain across town the day before.

Just after midnight, two gunmen approached the group of about 30 people in the parking lot of the Acorn housing complex on Eighth Street and, without warning, sprayed them with dozens of rounds. Green died and five teenagers were wounded, two critically, making them the latest victims of a trend that has repeated itself with alarming regularity in Oakland: bloodshed at a memorial.

The two young men who fired the shots escaped.

Green, who received her diploma last week from Ralph J. Bunche High School in West Oakland, died at Highland Hospital just before 1 a.m. The five people wounded ranged in age from 14 to 18.

'A good girl'

The group had gathered for a candlelight vigil for 17-year-old Damon Williams of Oakland, who was shot and killed Monday afternoon at a bus stop just steps from the police substation on 73rd Avenue in East Oakland.

Green was "a good girl - she had nothing to do with nothing. She wasn't doing anything wrong," Acorn complex resident Ron Muhammad, 42, said Wednesday. "It's a lot of senseless violence right now. People don't have nothing to do, a lot of frustration going back and forth."

Oakland officers are routinely put on alert when there are funerals on their beat. The shooting early Wednesday happened only minutes after a patrol officer checked the area, said Officer Jeff Thomason, a police spokesman.

Homicide Sgt. Jim Rullamas noted that shooters have targeted other memorials for homicide victims, most recently when gunfire erupted April 27 at an East Oakland church during a funeral for an 18-year-old man slain at his birthday party.

"I don't remember it happening like this in years past, and now it happens frequently. It's a shame," Rullamas said.

"There's no rules," Muhammad said. "If there was a rule in terms of the madness, I mean, there wouldn't be madness. So you've got the blind leading the blind - ain't got no guidance in terms of that. That's why we're getting what we're getting."

Green was a "fun person who loved to hang out with her friends. She loved to make people laugh," said a friend, Andra Gadson, 19. "She was always known as the girl with the bright-colored hair. She loved making people feel good. That was Rachael."

Gadson said it was "just sad" that people can't "mourn in a safe environment without stuff like this happening."

'Nice, outgoing'

"She was a nice, outgoing person," said Natalia Williams, 19, as she pushed her young child in a stroller on Adeline Street. "It's real messed up. I just don't understand what's going on out here."

The latest burst of violence came two days after three men approached Williams while he was at the bus stop, and one of them shot him during an argument, police said.

Ricardo DePalm, 18, was arrested a short time later at his home a few blocks away, after a police captain saw him running from the scene. He is being held without bail at a downtown Oakland jail on suspicion of murder.

Suspect dropped out

Williams had just finished his junior year at the same school that Green attended, Ralph J. Bunche High, said Troy Flint, Oakland Unified School District spokesman. DePalm completed his junior year at Leadership Preparatory High School in East Oakland in June 2009 but did not return for his senior year, Flint said.

"It's just heartbreaking that these incidents continue to happen, particularly at a time of year when we're supposed to be celebrating the progress of young people into better opportunities," Flint said. "It really underscores the need for the school district to work with all parts of the Oakland community to create a stronger culture that supports children."