BPD makes second arrest in downtown Berkeley shootout from October: Update

Update, Jan. 17, 2025: Berkeley police have made a second arrest in an October shootout in downtown Berkeley that left one person wounded. The man who was injured during the incident was arrested in November.

Berkeley homicide detectives went to Union City Wednesday where, with help from police from that city, they executed several warrants and arrested a 31-year-old Union City man, Omar Gonzalez, according to police, jail and court records and a statement from Berkeley police Friday.

The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office has charged Gonzalez with assault with a firearm, negligent discharge, illegally carrying a concealed firearm and carrying a loaded firearm in public, according to court records.

Several people called 911 beginning around 2:31 p.m. Oct. 24, reporting gunfire near Henry Street and Berkeley Way, police said at the time. The shooters had scattered by the time officers arrived, but police found shell casings nearby and, later that day, Arturo Avalos, 34, of Oakland showed up at Highland Hospital with a gunshot wound.

Berkeley police arrested Avalos in November. He is facing charges of possession of a firearm by a felon, negligent discharge, illegally carrying a concealed firearm and carrying a loaded firearm in public, according to court records.

Gonzalez was scheduled for arraignment Friday morning, and has been in custody without bail at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin since his arrest, according to jail and court records. Avalos is scheduled for arraignment Jan. 31 and is not listed on Santa Rita’s roster.

Original story, Nov. 21, 2024: Berkeley police have arrested the man who was injured in an Oct. 24 shootout downtown.

The shooting is still under investigation, with police looking for another shooter or shooters.

Starting around 2:31 p.m. that day several callers began reporting gunfire near Henry Street and Berkeley Way.

The shooters scattered, police said, but police found several shell casings nearby and, soon after the shootout, “a person with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound arrived at Highland Hospital for treatment,” Berkeley police spokesperson Officer Byron White said at the time.

Police arrested that man, a 34-year-old from Oakland, on Thursday morning after serving a warrant at an Oakland home, according to a Nixle alert from city police. He was in custody at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin Thursday evening pending a $260,000 bail, held on suspicion of assault with a firearm, shooting at inhabited building or vehicle and negligent discharge of a firearm, according to jail records.

The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office had not yet formally charged the man Thursday but he was scheduled for arraignment Monday at 9 a.m. at the Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse in Oakland. Berkeleyside does not typically name criminal defendants until they have been formally charged.

The case is still under investigation, police said Thursday. The Oakland Police Department and U.S. Marshals Service assisted in the investigation, police said.

This new arrest comes two weeks after BPD announced another arrest in another shooting case, on Oct. 26 at several locations around the edge of the UC Berkeley campus. They arrested 45-year-old Jeffrey Darren Hue in his hometown, San Francisco, on Nov. 7 and seized a dozen firearms and tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition. Hue is facing nine felony charges and one misdemeanor charge in the shooting and has pleaded not guilty.