Eight-year veteran cop shot Oakland suspect

An Oakland police officer who shot and wounded an allegedly knife-wielding man in East Oakland on Friday morning is an eight-year veteran of the department, police said Tuesday.

The officer was training a new recruit while on patrol in the area of 88th Avenue and E Street that morning. At 9:42 a.m., a mother flagged them down and said her adult son was acting erratically and armed with a knife, police said.

Her son, a 29-year-old Oakland resident, had talked about committing suicide by forcing police officers to shoot him, police said. Officers got out of their patrol car and found the man armed. They ordered him to drop the knife but he refused and lunged at his mother and one of the officers, police said.

The veteran officer fired at the man, wounding him. He was taken to a hospital where he was listed in critical but stable condition, police said. Neither officer was injured. The officers were wearing body cameras, per department policy, and both were activated when the man was shot, according to police.

The shooting is being investigated by the Oakland police Homicide Section and the Internal Affairs Division. Anyone with information has been asked to call the Homicide Section at (510) 238-3821 or the Internal Affairs Division at (510) 238-3161.