A man and a woman are dead after gunfire erupted on a winding hillside street straddling Oakland and Berkeley on Friday morning. Emergency crews rushed to the 400 block of Panoramic Way, where both victims later died from their injuries despite life-saving efforts.
Berkeley police began fielding multiple 911 calls about gunfire starting at 10:48 a.m., according to The Berkeley Scanner, which first reported the exact location and timing of the dispatch. Panoramic Way runs along a heavily forested hillside that sits right on the municipal boundary, and KTVU FOX 2 reports the Berkeley Police Department and Berkeley Fire Department were initially dispatched to assist, with the Oakland Police Department ultimately taking over as the lead investigative agency.
SSBCrack News reports that emergency responders from both Berkeley and Oakland treated the two victims near the UC Berkeley campus perimeter, but neither survived. As of Friday, investigators had not released details about a motive or suspect, and it remains unclear how the shooting unfolded on the quiet hillside street.
A Shooting Near the Berkeley Border
Panoramic Way sits along the border between the two cities, making the shooting especially jarring for the neighborhood. Because the street straddles both jurisdictions, the response required coordination between Berkeley's patrol and fire units and Oakland's homicide detectives, who assumed primary responsibility for the case once the scope of the incident became clear.
It's not the first time gun violence has reached into Oakland's hillside neighborhoods this year. In July, an Oakland Public Works maintenance worker was fatally shot in the East Oakland Hills near Old Quarry Loop and Leona Drive in the Monte Vista Villas neighborhood, according to CBS San Francisco, which reported that another city employee was later identified as the suspect in that case.
A City Tracking Progress Amid New Organizational Shifts
Friday's shooting lands at a complicated moment for public safety citywide. Oakland police reported a 29% decrease in overall Part 1 crimes during the first quarter of 2026 compared with the same period a year earlier; violent crime was down 22% and homicides were down 39%, according to KQED. Oakland closed out 2025 with 67 homicides, a 25-year low and a 48% drop from the post-pandemic peak of 134 homicides the city recorded in 2021, according to The Guardian, with municipal leaders crediting part of the decline to targeted violence prevention programs like Operation Ceasefire.
At the same time, the department is adjusting to major institutional change. U.S. District Judge William Orrick formally ended 23 years of federal oversight of the Oakland Police Department on September 29, returning full independent control to the city after OPD completed 52 court-ordered reform tasks tied to the 2003 “Riders” police misconduct settlement, according to The Oaklandside. That shift came just days before Friday's shooting.
Staffing remains a persistent challenge even as oversight ends. The department currently operates with between 680 and 700 sworn officers, well below the 877-officer minimum recommended by the city's own staffing study, per Omnilert.
For now, the deaths on Panoramic Way stand as an open case. Investigators have not said whether they are pursuing a specific motive or suspect, and neighbors in the hillside community are left grappling with the shooting.
