Armando Bocanegra, 29, of Oakland, was shot early on the morning of Sunday, June 22, 2008, in the 5900 block of East 17th Street in Oakland. Officers responding to a report of a shooting found him in a car. He was rushed to Highland Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The Oakland Police Department investigated.
Bocanegra was one of six men killed in five separate shootings in Oakland that weekend, between about 3:30 a.m. Saturday and 6:15 p.m.
Sunday, and three more people were wounded. Police at first reported seven deaths before correcting the count. The other victims named that weekend included Percy Brown, 52, and Mark Orviss, 36, of Oakland, and Matthew Thomas, 31, of San Leandro. Police did not say the shootings were connected.
The burst of killings put new pressure on city officials and residents. Police sent extra patrols and gang unit officers to "hot spots" across Oakland. Marilyn Washington Harris, who founded the Khadafy Foundation for Non-Violence after her son was shot and killed in the city, said, "The police cannot do it by themselves."
Few details about the shooting itself were made public. Police did not say whether Bocanegra was alone in the car, whether he was shot from another vehicle or by someone on foot, or what the motive was. No suspect description was released. No obituary or memorial for him could be found for this story, so very little is publicly known about his life.
The 5900 block of East 17th Street is in a residential part of East Oakland, in the Melrose area east of Fruitvale. A car parked or stopped on the street in the early morning hours, and the gunshots that followed, may have been heard by people in the houses along the block.
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 Armando Bocanegra could be found in news archives or public records. More than 18 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. Anyone who knows who Bocanegra was with in the early hours of June 22, 2008, or who saw a car on East 17th Street that morning, may be able to help. 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.
