Retired police captain injured in fatal shooting

OAKLAND » One person was killed and the former head of Oakland police’s Ceasefire anti-violence initiative was wounded in a shooting Thursday afternoon at a West Oakland gas station, authorities said.

The shooting happened just after 1 p.m. near one of the gas pumps at a Chevron station at 1700 Castro St.

One person, a male whose age was not immediately available, was pronounced dead at the scene. The other man who was shot was taken to a hospital.

Law enforcement sources who spoke to this news organization confirmed the wounded victim was Ersie

Joyner III, who led the Police Department’s Ceasefire anti-violence initiative from 2013 until his retirement as a captain in 2019. That initiative worked to contact residents vulnerable to crime and violence and provide services.

Joyner, who currently works as a consultant in the marijuana industry, drawing on experience combating narcotics, fraud and human trafficking, took pains to differentiate between Ceasefire’s focus and other more punitive approaches after a May 2019 warrant search: “Understand that accepting services doesn’t dictate whether people do investigations. Some contacted don’t engage in violence, but those who continue to engage? As promised, we hold them accountable.”

A motive for the shooting was under investigation. No arrests were announced; officials would not immediately confirm preliminary reports of a possible attempted armed robbery or carjacking followed by suspects fleeing in a vehicle.

Numerous city streets as well as on- and offramps to Interstate 980 were blocked off while the investigation was being conducted.

The death is the 115th this year that Oakland police are investigating as a homicide, following a separate fatal shooting Wednesday night in West Oakland. Last year, the city finished with 109 total homicides last year, well below its 1992 peak of 175 homicides.