Toddler in stroller hit by bullet shrapnel in attempted Oakland robbery
OAKLAND, Calif. - A 15-month-old girl was injured by bullet shrapnel after an armed suspect attempted to rob her nanny Tuesday morning in Oakland's Trestle Glen neighborhood, police said.
The nanny told KTVU she was pushing the toddler in a stroller in the 800 block of Trestle Glen Road by Lakeshore Avenue when she was confronted by two men, one of them armed with a gun.
"All of a sudden, I had something behind my neck and he said 'Don't move,' " she said.
The gunman demanded her purse.
"He was pulling, I was pulling and then when he saw that I'm fighting, I started screaming, so he took a gun, and he shot on the ground," she said.
The bullet strike was visible on the sidewalk. The toddler was hit in her leg by shrapnel and was taken to a hospital to be treated for lacerations.
"I was so scared. I kept screaming and then all these nice neighbors came out," the nanny said.
The nanny managed to keep her purse.
One neighbor described what he heard.
"I could hear a blood-curdling scream and a woman just yelling, and then all of a sudden I heard a gunshot," said Brad Palladino. "I came running down the stairs and there's a gentleman across the street with a dog, and he's yelling, 'Stop that, Stop that.' Then I saw the woman running up the street with a baby stroller."
Authorities have not provided any suspect information.
The attempted robbery comes days after a woman was robbed in the same neighborhood by two carloads of suspects in the 700 block of Grosvenor Place.
Video of that robbery shows the woman walking by a home when two cars pull up and several masked men get out. The woman attempts to run but is surrounded; her purse and other personal belongings are ripped from her body.
In that case, a good Samaritan said he and his wife helped the woman who was on the ground.
Officer Kim Armstead said at an afternoon press conference on Tuesday that Oakland has seen a 3% increase in robberies compared to last year. She said it appears that most of the robbery incidents are crimes of opportunity.
Armstead said analysts studying the city's crime trends found that there is no obvious explanation for when crimes occur in Oakland.
"They're happening throughout the week, not just on weekends, not just at night. It could be in the morning," said Armstead. "A lot of times these are certainly unprovoked incidents."