Cops mowed down by rules of engagement - die first, shoot later...

by Jaxon Van Derbeken & Carolyn Jones

Four Oakland police officers were shot and critically wounded this afternoon and a suspect killed after a car stop went bad.

Two of the officers were gunned down about 1:15 p.m. after they pulled over a car in the 7400 block of MacArthur Boulevard, not far from the Eastmont Town Center. Two other officers were shot two hours later when a SWAT team went after the suspect, who had barricaded himself in an apartment building at Hillside Street and 74th Avenue.

The suspect, who has not been identified, shot at the officers, who "returned fire in defense of their lives," said Officer Jeff Thomason, a department spokesman. The suspect, whom police believe was acting alone, was killed.

"We've received four officers in the trauma center," said Patricia VanHook, a Highland Hospital spokeswoman who said no other information was available.

About 100 officers were gathered outside the entrance to the hospital's emergency room, waiting desperately for information about their wounded friends and colleagues. Some of them were wearing SWAT gear, while others were wearing baseball jerseys after having raced from a game.

While the Alameda County coroner was called to the hospital in response to the shooting, information could be slow in coming, Thomason said.

"This is a highly sensitive situation that we're dealing with right now," he said. "We're still trying to notify family members that their family members were hurt."

First reports of the incident came from a 911 call at 1:16 p.m., reporting that two officers had been shot, possibly with an assault-type rifle. The suspect fled from the scene, sparking a huge manhunt that involved officers from at least five different law enforcement agencies.

Another 911 call reportedly told police that the suspect was in an apartment building just blocks from the original shooting. Officers went to the building and went into the building, where the final shootings took place.

Oakland police opened a substation at the Eastmont Mall in 1992, responding to neighborhood complaints about crime and violence in the area. But the substation, built in an old tire shop, did not end the neighborhood's problems.

In 1996, a rowdy rap concert in the mall turned into a melee, with a crowd lobbing bottles and rocks at police, cars and buses. Some of the concert-goers started racing their cars up and down the streets, and two men died after their car crashed through the fence of a nearby school playground.

In 1999, an Oakland police technician was shot at outside the police substation. In 2002, Michelle Horton of San Leandro was shot and killed as she drove on Bancroft Avenue near the mall.

Chronicle staff writers David R. Baker and John Wildermuth contributed to this report