Extra

Posted Tue., April 22—Oakland Police are investigating a Tuesday morning shooting in which neighbors say a North Oakland man shot an intruder breaking into his 59th Street home. 

The injured man, who had staggered up to Shattuck Avenue and collapsed near Dorsey’s Locker, a tavern at 5817 Shattuck Ave., was rushed to the Highland Hospital for treatment of a serious gunshot wound, police said. 

The man who fired the shot, a resident of a home in the 600 block of 59th Street, was being questioned by police investigators by late morning. 

“Right now, we’re just trying to determine whether the shooting was justified or not justified,” said Officer John Koster as he stood next to the police tape, which had sealed off the block of 59th between Shattuck Avenue and Whitney Street. 

Bob Brokl, a neighbor, said the intruder “was shot at the door as he was breaking into the house.” 

Ron Butier, who owns the house, said he was at work at the time of the shooting and declined to discuss the specifics of the shooting, which was done by his housemate. 

“There have been a lot of crimes in this neighborhood and people are feeling on their own, and they’ve been talking about taking matters into their own hands,” he said. 

Annie, a neighbor who lives a block south on 58th Street, said there was a fatal shooting on her block only three months ago. 

“He got shot in the middle of the block and staggered up to Shattuck before he collapsed and died,” she said. 

Annie said she knew the neighbor who had shot the intruder. “He’s a real nice guy. He has some nice things, and this isn’t the first time they’ve tried to break into his house. There are lots of break-ins in the neighborhood, and all the neighbors are trying to help. We’re all single people in studio apartments,” she said. 

“There are shootings all the time,” Butier said. “We hear gunshots all the time.” 

The scene of Tuesday morning’s shooting was just four doors down the street from the home of another North Oakland resident who figured in the shooting of a suspected criminal in 2005. 

Patrick McCullough shot a 15-year-old in the arm in the neighborhood where McCullough had been waging a campaign against drug dealers who neighbors said had been plaguing the neighborhood. 

McCullough, who is now running for the North Oakland City Council seat against three-term incumbent Jane Brunner, had told officers he had been surrounded by 15 young men in his front yard, who had yelled “Kill the snitch.” 

McCullough told police he shot the youth after another young man had told his companion, “Give me the pistol.” 

The Alameda County District Attorney’s office decline to prosecute McCullough at the urging of police. No charges were filed in that incident.