Less than a month shy of his 16th birthday, an East Oakland teen was shot and killed while walking with his friends to soccer practice, in what was merely an attempt to steal his backpack that quickly turned deadly.
The Bay Area News Group had the tragic news that a 15-year-old was shot and killed Monday afternoon around 4:15 pm in East Oakland’s Iveywood neighborhood. The teen was transported to a hospital but pronounced dead shortly after arrival, and police did not identify the teen at the time.
But now KTVU reports that the teen has been identified as Derbing Alvarado, a high school sophomore who was walking with his friends to soccer practice. They were apparently confronted by one or two suspects who demanded the youngster's backpack, and opened fire when it wasn't handed over.
"Last thing you want is a call from your son asking you to go and get him, and telling you his friend got shot," Maricruz Reyes, a mother of one of Alvarado’s friends who was also accosted, told KTVU. "He was my other kid. We saw him growing up. Seeing him there, we just couldn't believe it. It's crazy. They shot him and still, they did not take the backpack, so it's just ridiculous, senseless."
The Chronicle was on hand at a Tuesday vigil for Alvarado and got additional details from eyewitnesses. Alvarado’s backpack was an apparently fashionable brand called Sprayground, and a gunman apparently approached Alvarado demanding it. The boys all put their hands in the air, but Alvarado attempted to negotiate, and it turned into a struggle. Apparently four shots were fired, one hitting Alvarado in the stomach, and his friends recall him saying, “I’m going to die.”
“They killed my son,” his father Derbing Jose Alvarado Orosco said in Spanish while crying at the vigil, according to the Chronicle.
The younger Alvarado was a fan of Real Madrid CF soccer, an avid soccer player himself, and a PlayStation enthusiast.
KRON4 adds that Alvarado attended Cristo Rey De La Salle East Bay High School in Fruitvale. That school has posted a statement saying, “No school, no family, no person, no child should have to endure such a tragedy.”
A GoFundMe has been established to help with the costs of the Alvarado family’s funeral expenses.
Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to contact the Oakland Police Department Homicide Section at (510) 238-3821, or the tip line at (510) 238-7950. Anyone with relevant videos or photos is asked to email these to [email protected].
Image via GoFundMe
