Oakland is experiencing a 'safety emergency' after a wave of violence over the July 4 weekend, the city's police chief said on Monday.
LeRonne Armstrong described '12 hours of nonstop chaos,' telling reporters that his department had responded to seven shootings from Sunday night to 10 a.m Monday.
'When the yellow tape is gone and when the streets are cleaned up, there is still hurt and pain and tragedy in our community.'
'I hope that we can put politics aside and put public safety first,' Armstrong said, adding that his force was 'clearly outnumbered' by the incidents.
The department said several people were critically injured and one killed in the shootings, which come amid a steep rise in violent crime in the Californian city.
Authorities said that none of the shootings appeared to be related and that some may have been celebratory gunfire.
The first shooting happened at 6:24 p.m. when a 29-year-old was hit multiple times while in his car.
A little over three hours later, 911 calls came in regarding a 16-year-old's celebratory gunfire.
The department listed the weekend's significant incidents in a lengthy press release, posted to Facebook on Monday.
At 10:00 p.m. another 29-year-old suffered multiple gunshots and less than an hour later a 45-year-old man was critically injured by gunfire on the 4200 block of International Boulevard.
At 11:49 p.m., a man who suffered blunt trauma to the head on the same block of International Boulevard died.
Around 30 minutes later, a 48-year-old was killed in a homicide and at 12:40 a.m. a female gunshot victim walked into a hospital.
Armstrong said the final victim is 'likely not going to make it'.
Speaking to Fox News on Tuesday, Armstrong said Oakland had 65 ongoing homicide investigations.
'We are facing a crisis and we are in significant need of additional resources.'
His comments followed the city's decision to defund its police department by $17 million despite a 90 per cent increase in murders.
Oakland is experiencing a 'safety emergency' after a wave of violence over the July 4 weekend, the city's police chief said on Monday. LeRonne Armstrong (pictured) described '12 hours of nonstop chaos,' telling reporters that his department had responded to seven shootings from Sunday night to 10 a.m Monday
Several U.S. cities have been grappling with calls for police reform following the death of George Floyd last year.
Armstrong said he is 'not opposed to any new and innovative ways of keeping our community safe' but that Oakland had 'a real issue of violence that law enforcement has to step in and be able to do its job and make this community safer.'
'I think investing in violence preventions is important but it's not going to have an immediate impact on the violence we're experiencing day to day in the city of Oakland. We need the resources,' he said.
'Violence has continued to increase despite these conversations around defund and we clearly know that having less police officers is not going to equivalate a safer community.'
When asked whether residents felt safe, he responded that Oakland was 'a tough city to be in right now'.
'Everywhere I go in the city of Oakland, I'm often told by community members that they don't feel safe, that they would like to see more police, that they want to feel safer in their communities.
'They want to be able to walk in their communities and not have the fear of being victimized in any way and so I think what we're seeing from City Hall is inconsistent with what
