Evan Chapman, 18, of Oakland, was found shot to death shortly after midnight on Tuesday, August 23, 2011, in the 1800 block of 79th Avenue, a cul-de-sac that ends at Arroyo Viejo Park in East Oakland. The Oakland Police Department investigated.
Police were called after reports of a shooting and found Chapman dead in the street. At first, neither police nor the coroner could identify him.
On August 24, police released photos of his distinctive tattoos to the media: stars with tails on his right forearm and the name "Theresa" on his left forearm. Someone who knew Chapman saw the pictures on a television broadcast and called police, and other callers gave the same name. His identity was confirmed on August 25.
Officer Doug Keely said police had no motive and no suspects. Chapman lived in another part of Oakland, but he had friends in the area where he was killed. People who knew him told police he had planned to enroll at Chabot College in Hayward on the very morning he was found dead.
No further reporting on the investigation could be found, and police never publicly described a suspect or a vehicle. The circumstances that brought Chapman to the dead-end street that night, and whether he was alone, have never been made public.
The 1800 block of 79th Avenue is a short residential street in East Oakland that dead-ends at Arroyo Viejo Park, a large neighborhood park with sports fields and a creek. A cul-de-sac at midnight has few people passing through, so anyone who lived on the block, or anyone Chapman was visiting, may be among the few who saw or heard what happened.
Oakland was one of the most violent large cities in California in those years. The city recorded 148 homicides in 2006 and more than 100 in most years through 2013, and its police department solved far fewer of them than the statewide average. In 2010 and 2011, Oakland police cleared only about 30 percent of the city's homicides.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Evan Chapman could be found in news archives or public records. More than 15 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. The Washington Post's homicide database, which tracked killings in Oakland from 2008 through 2017, lists the case as open with no arrest. The friends Chapman had in the neighborhood around 79th Avenue may know who he was with that night. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a car seen leaving the area or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call the Oakland Police Department Homicide Section at (510) 238-3821 or the homicide tip line at (510) 238-7950, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers of Oakland at (510) 777-8572.
