30 Reputed Gang Members Arrested in Raids in Multiple Cities

Raids in Oakland and six other cities today by 14 different law enforcement agencies culminated a long-term operation that has resulted in the arrest of 30 suspected members of a violent East Oakland gang, Police Chief Sean Whent said. The suspects who’ve been arrested are allegedly affiliated with the Case Gang and police believe they’re responsible for murders, robberies and other violent crimes, Whent said.

Joining Whent and other law enforcement officials at a news conference at police headquarters, Capt. Ersie Joyner said, “The Case Gang has been on our radar because of a double homicide in September and other shootings and crimes.” Whent said, “We don’t randomly pick which gangs to focus on - they self-select for enforcement” based on which ones are the most violent.

Whent said the suspects who were targeted in the raids today and other previous recent occasions had been contacted as part of Operation Ceasefire but refused to cooperate with authorities and turn their lives around. Operation Ceasefire, a strategy that Oakland started three years ago, involves police, prosecutors, community leaders and service providers meeting with reputed gang members to offer support and tell them that gun violence must stop.

Whent said 18 of the 30 arrests were made early this morning by hundreds of officers who served search warrants in Oakland, Antioch, Dublin, San Lorenzo, Stockton, Tracy and Sacramento. He said the operation also led to the recovery of 25 guns, with 7 of those guns being seized this morning. Joyner said one of the suspects who was arrested is believed to have been the person who fatally shot 23-year-old Robert Fields of San Leandro and 27-year-old Avery Enoch of Oakland in the 2300 block of 88th Avenue in Oakland at 10:06 a.m. on Sept. 9.

However, police won’t release the names of that suspect and the suspects in other incidents until the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office files charges next week, Joyner said. Police believe several other people also were involved in the shooting of Fields and Enoch and those suspects remain at large, Joyner said.

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said, “It doesn’t give us joy” to announce the arrest of the suspects, but she said the suspects didn’t take advantage of the opportunity to turn their lives around that Operation Ceasefire offered.

Schaaf said, “We won’t tolerate violence and we value the life of every human being.” Whent said, “We really want gangs to listen to the message of Operation Ceasefire and we also want to make East Oakland a safe place.”

By Bay City News