A woman in her 40s was struck and killed late Saturday night by a driver who fled the scene at 73rd and Garfield avenues in East Oakland — directly in front of Mt. Tabor Baptist Church and across the street from the Oakland Police Department's Eastmont Substation.
The location is not incidental to the anger it has produced. The Eastmont Substation at 2651 73rd Avenue is not just a police building; it is also the home of the Oakland Police Traffic Division headquarters, according to SFist. A pedestrian was run down and left in the roadway steps from the office responsible for the city's traffic enforcement, and — as of the latest police statements — no suspect vehicle has been publicly identified.
Oakland police are investigating a deadly hit-and-run that killed a woman near the Eastmont Town Center on Saturday night, one of the department's most heavily policed intersections in East Oakland.
The crash happened around 11:45 p.m. on the 2500 block of 73rd Avenue, KRON4 and SFist reported. A vehicle heading north on 73rd Avenue struck the woman at the intersection with Garfield Avenue, left her lying in the road, and drove off, according to SFist's account of the police description. First responders performed life-saving aid, but she was pronounced dead at the scene. Witnesses told KTVU the victim was a woman in her 40s; her name has not been released pending next-of-kin notification.
What has turned a fatal crash into a neighborhood grievance is where it happened. Mt. Tabor Baptist Church sits on one side of the intersection; the Oakland Police Eastmont Substation sits across the street. SFist reported that the same building also houses the Oakland Police Traffic Division headquarters — the unit charged with enforcing the city's traffic laws.
Residents who spoke to KTVU said drivers routinely speed through the area and that police rarely pull anyone over, despite the substation being right there. They want speed bumps and more surveillance. "Put some more speed bumps around here, have a little more surveillance here, because that should not be happening," one local resident told the station.
A community member, Shirley Allen, was blunt about the driver who fled, telling KTVU the person "didn't even have the decency to stop … call 911 and then the police station being right there."
Put some more speed bumps around here, have a little more surveillance here, because that should not be happening," one local resident told the station.
Neighbors told KTVU that several security cameras at the intersection point toward the spot where the woman was struck, and said they hope investigators can use the footage to identify the driver. As of the outlets' latest reporting, no suspect vehicle had been publicly identified. KTVU said it had reached out to Oakland police for an update on the investigation.
The killing lands in a corridor with a recent and grievous history. SFist noted that three months ago, roughly two miles away, an allegedly speeding juvenile driver crashed into a group of pedestrians at 85th Avenue and International Boulevard, killing three of them — another late-Saturday-night crash in the same slice of East Oakland.
For now, the case is what residents keep returning to: a woman dead in the street, a fleeing driver, and the offices of the city's traffic-enforcement division close enough to see it from the window. Anyone with information about the crash is asked to contact the Oakland Police Department.

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