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Victim's mother in Oakland broad daylight fatal shooting speaks
The mother of a 22-year-old man gunned down in a downtown Oakland daytime shooting tells KTVU her son was driving from his San Francisco home to visit a friend when the violence erupted.
OAKLAND, Calif. - The mother of Oakland's latest murder victim says he was "full of life" and the father of a 2-year-old girl.
"He has three brothers and a sister, he was loved, he will be missed," said Rhonda Hampton, of San Francisco, weeping as the Alameda County Coroner wheeled her son away.
She identified him as Christopher Cawthorne, 22, of San Francisco.
Monday's homicide was brazen even for a city where killings are rampant.
It happened on 8th Street near Broadway, just after 2 p.m., only a block from police headquarters.
"There were several shooters, we have high-power rifle rounds and handgun rounds," said Ofc. Johnna Watson, Oakland Police spokesperson.
The sidewalk outside a barber shop was littered with markers for more than two dozen bullet casings.
Alongside them, a white Honda Accord with at least one window blown out.
Hampton told KTVU that her son had been in the neighborhood to visit a friend and "something happened."
"I would never wish death on my worst enemy and I would never wish anything like this on anyone's family," said Hampton.
A few dozen relatives from around the Bay Area gathered at the scene, and watched from behind a police perimeter.
"Our chief came out, Chief Armstrong, and met with some of the family members, talked to them," said Watson.
Cawthorne was Oakland's 52nd homicide in five short months.
Last year at this time there were 22.
Like most, police say this one was targeted.
"There's no reason for this nonsense to go on in broad daylight,' said Capt. Bobby Hookfin of OPD.
Investigators are canvassing for surveillance video, and have not disclosed whether the shooters were in a vehicle or on foot.
"This is a heinous crime and speaks to the level of craziness that's going on in our city and across the country, this has to stop," said Hookfin.
The shooting occurred as officers began their afternoon briefing.
When they heard it, they bolted from their headquarters to run to the scene.
"Whether it was one block from the police department or in East Oakland or West Oakland, a life was lost and we have to really look at gun violence," said Watson.
An older brother of Cawthorne's, understandably distraught, arrived at the scene and tried to push past the police tape to get to his sibling.
Officers held him back.
"I grew up in East Oakland and I just hate that my son was a casualty of what happens," said Hampton.
"He doesn't deserve it, he has not lived long enough to do anything to deserve this."