– The grief was raw in a West Oakland neighborhood Tuesday morning after an artist was shot to death while painting a mural.
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A vigil will be held Wednesday morning, the day after a muralist working on a community project in West Oakland was shot and killed to commemorate a local artist and urge others to take a stand against violence.
According to Oakland police, Ramos, 27, who lived in Emeryville, was shot at the mural site under the Interstate Highway 580 overpass on West Street between 35th and 36th streets at about 10:30 a.m. Tuesday and was pronounced dead at a hospital a short time later. Ramos was found by police when they arrived on the scene after receiving a report about shots fired in the area.
The 4,000-square-foot mural project was conceptualized by middle school students in West Oakland who re-imagined themselves as superheroes to help solve issues in their communities.
Whent said the artist was “someone who was trying to make a positive difference in this city and lost his life”.
“He loved the messages and images envisioned by the students being spread throughout the community”, the group said.
The artists were working on the mural as part of its Oakland Super Heroes Mural Project project.
“I had the pleasure and honor of working alongside him on a huge mural underneath the 580 freeway on San Pablo Ave in Oakland”, one artist wrote on Instagram this afternoon.
“This is a busy area with a mix of commercial and residential buildings so we hope someone saw something”, she said. The mural that Ramos was working is the third of six planned murals and is meant to depict a pleasant row of houses with white birds and a young girl flying above it. AHC has been fundraising through an Indiegogo campaign to gather funds to complete the project.
The group plans to commemorate Ramos by continuing to work on the mural.
The middle school students who designed the mural had planned to come and paint part of it Wednesday.
Oakland has had 73 homicides this year, and many have happened on the western end of the city.
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Ramos got involved in the effort, after living in the neighborhood, he simply asked if he could help, according to project spokeswoman Erica Wheeler-Dubin. Police are still searching for the suspect. “We’re still stuck with these people around here still just destroying stuff”, Jackson said.
