Shoshana Walter/The Bay Citizen

Investigators at the scene of Fruitvale shooting

At least five Oakland and BART police officers shot and killed a man Saturday morning in Fruitvale after the knife-wielding suspect led them on a chase through blocks of homes, taunting “Shoot me, shoot me!” before reaching for something in his backpack, witnesses said.

Their accounts differed slightly from police reports, which stated that the man lunged at police before he was shot and killed.

The shooting came about one week after former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of Oscar Grant, and two days after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill calling for independent oversight of BART police.

Witnesses interviewed by The Bay Citizen Saturday said they heard the man, wearing one knapsack on his chest and another on his back, shouting “Shoot me!” before he turned his back to officers and reached for something in his front bag.

Oakland police received initial reports about 8:15 a.m. of a man, armed with a knife, on the 3200 block of E. 12th Street. The department notified BART police, and two BART officers found a man matching the caller’s description in the area. When approached, he fled.

The BART officers, soon joined by Oakland police, gave chase, winding north on 34th Avenue, west on E. 16th Street, and south on 33rd Avenue.

Police say they tried Tasing the man several times, with no effect. According to police, the man, armed with two knives, then charged at the officers, and they opened fire.

Fourteen-year-old Florencia Osores and her family gathered to watch the chase through Osores’ front bedroom window. She said she saw about fifteen officers pursue the man down the middle of 33rd Avenue.

The man looked like he was in his 40s, dark-skinned, “not Latino and not black,” she said. A few doors down from their house, the man stopped running and turned toward officers, she recalled, walking back and forth and shouting “Shoot me, shoot me!”

“The cops said ‘stop,’” she said. Then the suspect turned his back to officers, and “looked like he was taking something from his bag.”

That’s when Osores heard shots and the man fell.

Not all of the neighbors witnessed the shooting. Some said the shots sounded like firecrackers. Others slept through it. But as police cars and news reporters flooded the block, the news spread.

Apparently concerned about public response, Mayor Ron Dellums released a statement Saturday afternoon urging calm: “Anytime there is a loss of life, it is a matter of great concern and sadness for us all,” he wrote. “It is extremely important that we as a community continue to work together in order to provide a safe and secure environment. Therefore, a thorough investigation of the circumstances surrounding this death has begun."

The man’s death is the third officer-involved fatality in Oakland so far this year. Last year, there were six officer-involved shootings, Oakland police said.

The Oakland police officers involved in the shooting have been placed on paid administrative leave for three days, spokesman Jeff Thomason said. The BART Internal Affairs department, Oakland police homicide unit and Internal Affairs department and the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office are all investigating the incident.

“The loss of life under any circumstance is truly an unfortunate and regrettable event,” wrote BART Vice President Bob Franklin and board member Carole Ward Allen in a joint statement. “The BART Police Department is cooperating fully with the Oakland Police Department who has the lead in the investigation into today’s officer involved shooting. We have immediately launched a separate but parallel administrative investigation as well to ensure this incident is thoroughly investigated in a transparent manner."

Officials need not have worried about urging calm.

When police removed the crime scene tape late Saturday afternoon, neighbors emerged from their homes to swap stories on the shrub-lined block, also shared by an elementary school.

A few “Justice for Oscar Grant” posters remained plastered on nearby posts, but there was no uproar.

“I think police did their job,” said one neighbor to another. The other agreed.

Osores, meanwhile, grappled quietly with what she’d seen.

“I’ve never seen the cops versus a person before,” she said. “They shouldn’t be trying to kill him. Couldn’t they have shot him in the leg?”