Berkeley had 52 confirmed gunfire calls in 2021. Berkeleyside created the 2021 Berkeley gunfire map to track what happened.
Click the rectangle in the upper left corner of the gunfire map to see a list of incidents; click any marker for basic info on each one.
Seven of the shootings left people wounded but expected to survive: In January, a Berkeley police officer shot a robbery suspect; the investigation into that incident is ongoing as of January 2022. In March, one man shot another after a domestic dispute. In August, a man was shot on San Pablo Avenue.
In September, a man at Aquatic Park was shot in the leg; a 16-year-old girl was shot in the leg inside a home on Channing Way; and a woman was shot outside a home on Acton Street during a domestic dispute. Also in September, a man with a gunshot wound walked into Oakland’s Highland Hospital and claimed he had shot himself in Berkeley; details were sketchy and BPD was unable to locate any crime scene.
There were no fatal shootings in 2021. In 2020, there were 41 gunfire investigations in Berkeley, including four that were fatal.
BPD has told Berkeleyside that police consider a gunfire call to have been confirmed if officers find evidence such as bullet casings, property damage or a victim at the scene. UCPD and Oakland have ShotSpotter gunfire detection systems that can also be used to confirm these reports. Police ask anyone with information about any of these incidents to call BPD’s Homicide Detail at 510-981-5741.
In the 2021 Berkeley gunfire map, the shootings where someone was wounded are marked orange. The rest are marked yellow — other than the shooting involving a Berkeley police officer, which is marked green.
Gunfire was up in 2021 compared to recent years
There were more gunfire investigations in Berkeley in 2021 than there were in 2020, but more of the 2020 shootings left people wounded or dead.
By the end of 2020, Berkeley had 41 confirmed incidents of gunfire, killing four people and wounding 11.
Prior to 2020, the city of Berkeley’s last fatal shooting was in 2016 when 22-year-old Alex Goodwin Jr. was killed outside his home near San Pablo Park. That case remains unsolved and police have announced a $50,000 reward for clues.
In 2019, Berkeley PD counted 28 incidents of confirmed gunfire. Three left someone wounded but none were fatal. In addition, the University of California Police Department handled a shooting at People’s Park that left a man dead.
Berkeley had no homicides in 2018. In 2017, a woman was fatally stabbed in Berkeley but there were no fatal shootings.
Read more about gunfire in Berkeley in the Berkeleyside archives.
Berkeleyside will update this map each time confirmed gunfire is reported. Hear gunfire in Berkeley? We want to know about it. (We will keep you anonymous.)