Hispanic / Latino male John Mica Esquibell, 28, left a friend-filled Friday night in Uptown Oakland and set out on the short walk home with a warm paper bag of empanadas in his hand. Just after 3 a.m. on September 6, 2025, near the 1700 block of San Pablo Avenue, ShotSpotter sensors cracked the silence and 911 calls followed. In the confusion of multiple gunshots, witnesses later told his family that someone began firing as crowds dispersed in the neighborhood; the bullets found John Mica
Esquibell, 28, as he walked away from the street vendor toward his apartment. Paramedics rushed him from the scene to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead hours later.
The violence was part of a compressed, chaotic span in central Oakland: at least four shootings between roughly 2 a.m. and 4 a.m., two people killed and several others wounded within a few blocks of one another. Authorities described overlapping scenes in the Uptown corridor—Broadway, Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Telegraph Avenue, and San Pablo Avenue—where gunfire erupted as the night thinned. City officials and police union statements pointed to multiple armed groups exchanging fire in at least one of the incidents, and investigators appealed for tips as they worked to stitch together timelines from shell casings, ShotSpotter pings, and surveillance clips.
In the days that followed, family and colleagues put words to a life abruptly cut short. John Mica Esquibell, 28, had recently moved across the Bay to Oakland, building a new routine in a neighborhood he enjoyed. He was known at work for diligence and steady leadership, having risen to manage a SoMa dispensary, and at home for a generous streak that made him a connector among friends. The details of his final steps remained painfully ordinary—buying food, walking a familiar route—until gunfire from others’ conflict turned him into an unintended target.
As of the initial investigative updates released in the week after the shootings, police had not announced arrests and had not named suspects in the killing of John Mica Esquibell, 28. Detectives said the inquiry was active and urged anyone with images or information from the early-morning corridor to come forward, while family members publicly pleaded for answers and accountability.
