Shooting near MacArthur BART station leaves man dead 20-year old Nathan Taylor was shot and killed near the BART station that I frequently take to work yesterday. He was shot in broad daylight at 1:20pm in the afternoon on Apgar Street. I park my car on Apgar Street sometimes when I leave it there during the day.
The above photo is taken from the MacArthur BART platform.
There is an Oakland public school, The Village Acadamy, about 2 blocks from where Taylor was shot and killed.
When is Ron Dellums, Oakland’s mayor, going to do something about getting guns off of the streets of Oakland? When are we as a society going to get tougher on criminals and gangsters who posses illegal guns?
We need to take the guns away from the criminals. We need to pass legislation that would require any criminal caught possessing an illegal gun to get a mandatory life in prison sentence with no possibility for parole.
It’s sad to think that a passing school child or father coming home from work on the BART could have gotten caught in the crossfire of the bullets that continue to fly over all areas of Oakland.
My jaw pretty much dropped when I saw this. Scary stuff when I think that my wife and I were just there a month ago at that very stop with all of our camera equipment. Broad daylight. Wow, times are a changing and it isn’t always good.
Thanks for posting this for all of us to read.
Its funny as I read that I’m thinking I wish we could get that level of incarceration for first/second degree murder here in Canada where the justice system is a complete revolving door. Murders can be free in a matter of 8 years.
I often wonder why they don’t just ban guns outright and have incredible penalties for ANYONE caught with a gun.
I realise that this wouldn’t eradicate guns, and people would still be able to get their hands on them, but no-where near as easy. Surely this would dramatically reduce the amount of guns and therefore the amount of shootings?
There’d be uproar from farmers and people who enjoy hunting, but surely spoiling someone’s fun to save lives is acceptable? What price do you put on human life?
@littlecharva, You should understand that nearly NO crimes are committed by people legally possessing a firearm.
What I mean is that almost every single time a criminal commits a crime with a firearm, even just in their possession, they are possessing that firearm illegally.
So, banning you, Thomas, or myself from legally possessing a firearm would have nearly no effect on your desired outcome.
Take a look at Australia, who only within recent time has banned almost all firearms from being possessed by anyone. Violent crime rose immediately and has risen drastically since the ban.
As much as I respect Thomas’ opinions on many things, and I’d love to see harsher punishments for criminals who continue to break the law, I fall back on existing laws. If we simply held people accountable when they break the existing laws, we’d see a change. The problem is that we have increasingly weak District Attorneys and Judges. We have the voting public becoming weak too, worried too much about the feelings of the criminal and less about the victims.
So, with that in mind, I appreciate Thomas’ efforts to remind us of the suffering and tragedy experienced by the victims.
Well said, Trevor. Criminals who possess guns have absolutely NOTHING to do with legal citizens possessing guns. The reason, littlecharva, they don’t ban guns is because it’s a 2nd Amendment right…notice it’s not the 5th or 8th or 10th amendment. It’s #2, right after God, Speech, Press, Assemblage and the right to Petition. I understand your frustrations; crimes hurt us all and endangers our welfare as citizens. I just wish you’d think to blame the individual holding the gun first. If someone wrote you a piece of hate-mail, would you blame their pen or pencil…? No, you’d blame the individual holding it.
I’m not claiming that people who legally own guns are causing the crime, but if it was made illegal to own a gun and really strict punishments were enforced for anyone found in possession of one then surely there’d be less guns around and so harder for your casual criminal or confused teenager to get their hands on.
I imagine it wouldn’t be too hard for a criminal to steal a gun from a legal owner’s home or a gun store – in fact, don’t they even sell them in Walmart?
Regarding the pen issue, pens can be used to create beautiful things, to communicate and to draw. Guns are manufactured to kill or wound yeah? Can you give me an example of any nice things you can achieve with a gun?
You’re from a country that is prepared to ban filesharing tools such as Kazaa because they can be used for illegal purposes, even though they can also be used for legal purposes. Yet won’t ban guns because it’s in some amendment that was written over 200 years ago in a country that was at a very early stage in its development. Wasn’t slavery still allowed back then? Do you miss that?
If you were to ban all guns and have stiff penalties then I expect there would be less guns around and therefore less opportunity to shoot people with them. I’m not saying it would erradicate shootings, but even if it saved a thousand lives it’s gotta be worth it? Fuck, even if it saves on life it’s worth it.
Well i know i am commenting late on this but the problem still exist today 5/26/09.
Just recently i found out that criminal records were publc infor so i went and looked at my neighbor records since she got released from prison and set up a crack garage next to buy home i just purchased.
And to my surprise she has 2WEAPON charges both while on probation
5 home robbery charges and countless cocaine prosession charges and yet the adult probation let her out for 5 years UN-SUPERVISED PROBATION. TWO Weapon charges she is a felon ? come on now. I called every city offical in oakland including the majors office and the directror of probation and the lady continues to get caught even in 1/09 yes 2009 from 1992 charges and is walking the steerts like nothing ever happens or will happen to her.
So how safe is oakland? If the city offices are part of the problem and not the solution.