Oakland Police are currently investigating a fatal sideshow-related crash on early Sunday morning. Two OPD officers are presumed connected to the case.
On Monday afternoon, Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong announced that the two officers linked to the case are on administrative leave.
“We want to thoroughly investigate our involvement, I think it’s important that we make sure that whatever involvement we had with this incident that we fully investigate that to make sure our officers were following policy, following laws,” Armstrong said on a Monday news conference.
There are no further details on the officers’ involvement were released.
Oakland Police Department says the deadly traffic collision happened just before 2 a.m. on Sunday on the 5400 block of International Boulevard. The officers were in a car chase where the driver sped near 100 miles per hour.
“Sideshows has been an issue for many cities, Oakland you know has been affected by sideshows for many weekends,” the chief said.
Officers immediately responded to a report of the crash that involved several pedestrians. At the scene, one unresponsive male adult and three others suffered injuries related to the crash.
Oakland Fire units and an ambulance arrived at the scene for emergency aid. The unresponsive male victim succumbed to his injuries while the three injured pedestrians were moved to a hospital and are in stable conditions.
Authorities identified the driver of the vehicle as a 19-year-old male Oakland resident. He is detained and is held on charges of vehicular manslaughter.
“We did not take any sideshow intervention operation on regarding this particular incident,” Armstrong said.
The preliminary investigation shows that a Nissan 350Z was traveling eastbound on International Boulevard at high speed. It struck a second vehicle in the roadway, causing it to spin.
The Nissan 3505 continued to hit multiple parked cars and motorcycles along the 5400 block of International Boulevard.
“The speed in which people traveling in cars, whether related to sideshows or just driving in our community, is just far too fast and it’s putting the public at risk,” said Armstrong. The name of the deceased and the injured parties are being withheld pending notification to family members.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Oakland Police Department Traffic Investigation Unit at (510) 777-8570.
