Gunfire near Oakland's Eastmont Mall to blame for cable outages

OAKLAND, Calif. - Thousands of Comcast customers lost their TV service for most of Sunday including during the 49ers NFC championship game.

Comcast blames it on a shooting in Oakland by 69th Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard near Eastmont Mall about 5 a.m. Sunday. 

Company spokeswoman Joan Hammel said in an email to KTVU: "Our team say the fiber was peppered with bullet holes. Oakland PD are investigating, as I understand it."

And she provided a picture of the cables with holes punctured through the black wire. 

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Oakland police had been investigating a shooting that occurred around 3:30 a.m. in the 6800 block of MacArthur Boulevard. 

The Police Department’s ShotSpotter gunfire detection system reported 17 rounds fired. At the location, officers found bullet casings, and surveillance video showed a person inside a vehicle firing shots out their window "into the air," police said.

Fortunately, no one was hurt in the shooting.

Comcast thought repairs would be finished by early afternoon.

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However, when the 49ers game started, 20,000 Comcast customers still had no cable service.

There were reports that the Comcast crews out fixing the problem were getting verbally harassed by angry football fans.  

Most customers had service returned about 7 p.m. on Sunday, after the Rams beat the 49ers.