does anyone have any info??

I just heard about 10 really loud gunshots in the vicinity of Sacramento and Ashby in South Berkeley. Anyone know what the hell is up? My neighbors are calling for their kids, getting everyone inside because it sounds really close and it keeps going on. There were at least 10 shots over a period of 4 minutes.

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If they're shooting at you, shoot back.

If they're shooting at each other, stay out of it.

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I usually avoid talking about 'bad areas of town' because so often people define those with racist criteria, but my friend's mother got killed near there about five years ago. I was once standing in the window of a house on sacramento not too far from Ashby at 1am and a police was driving by, and he shined a flashlight up and asked me to come out, and asked if I had heard shots recently. Ashby and about King st. is probably the center of drug trade related violence in Berkeley presently. Things look different during day and night. During the day it is just the equivalent of a freeway with cars speeding through town. I wouldn't want to be a little kid at Malcolm elem school and have to deal #1 with the constant fast, impatient traffic, and 2, some of the hopeless people.

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I heard it too, over a period of about 3 minutes. I was outside riding my bike up Acton from near Sacramento to the grocery store.

It sounded like large caliber guns. I also heard what sounded like the drone of one or more airplanes. Sounded like at least two different pitches of drone. It all sounded military...

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What's that mean?

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...the sound was a more of a "boom" than the normal "pop" that is occasionally heard in this neighborhood. It did not sound like typical "ghetto" gunfire. It wasn't automatic weapons, it wasn't sustained; but it did sound like a large gun made it. Actually, it sounded like more than one kind of large gun.

Also, I heard this stuff around 9:00pm, not 6:15 when the article was posted, so this was possible a separate incident in the same area.

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Or maybe a .44 Mag?

A .45 makes a hellacious bang compared to the .9mms that everybody likes these days, but a .44 Mag (Dirty Harry) sounds like little cannon going off. It beats on your thumb like all hell, too. Both pale next to .12 guage.

The reason I ask is I'm wondering if it was the cops. They use .12 gauges sometimes.

There's a few .44 Mag carbines on the street, too, so I hear. I've never heard one go off, but it's safe to assume that if one was working nearby, you would notice.

The .44 Mag revolver is pretty much useless for combat. Life ain't the movies. It's a good back up for bear hunters, but it kicks like a mule, so the barrel climbs very high. It can’t be kept down. If you miss on the first shot, he can double tap you and put it away before you get your sight back down on him. But a lot of young hoodlums don't know this. They saw Dirty Harry and think you can fight with one of these things. Boy, are they in for a surprise.

Maybe that's what you heard. It's not just louder than a nine, it's deeper and fuller a sound. What was the pitch of the thing that you heard?

A .357 Mag is pretty loud, too, but not like a .44 or a .12. It's higher pitched, too.

Cops tend to use nines or .38 Specials, which are pretty similar. Some forces leave it up to the individual. Other forces dictate. I’m not sure about Berkeley.

Some cops use .357 Mags. Personally, I feel that this is extremely irresponsible in an urban setting, because of their propensity for over penetration.

Blasting away with a .12 guage isn’t responsible, either, unless it’s loaded with bird shot. The thing about birdshot is it only works at very close range. Cops tend to avoid close range whenever they can. That means buckshot. The thing about buckshot is that out past, oh say, 75 yards, it goes pretty much all over the place. This can be very rough on innocent bystanders.

Personally, I think cops should be armed with big whistles. If people choose to ignore them, so be it. If somebody is trying to kill you, forget the cops anyway. By the time they finish their donuts and get in the car, the incident will have resolved.

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the word is that it was the survival research labs show by or near the Crucible studio on Murray street. They do something involving robots that shoot off cannons and spit flame and eat 2x4s.

see http://www.srl.org/shows/archive

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I don't think it was the SRL show, first
post on this page was at 6pm, SRL show
was from 8pm to 9pm, and it was several
blocks away from Ashby & Sacramento,
it was at the intersection of Hollis and Ashby,
down by OSH hardware. They were running a
machine that makes a very loud booming noise,
an air cannon, but the blast and sound wave
is directed at one spot, and it's a big muffled
boom, it doesn't sound like a gunshot at all.
The cannon shoots about once every 2 minutes,
so you would have heard a boom, every couple
of minutes at regular intervals, doesn't sound
like a gun battle.

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it was the Extra Action Marching Band!

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The sounds I heard around 9 were not actually at Ashby and Sacto, they were near Ashby, but definitely west of Sacto. It sounded like it was between Sacto and San P, but it could have been at Crucible's space, now that I consider that possibility.

I'm guessing I heard some sort of "grand finale". A bunch of different robots/loud things, along with one or more cannons. In fact, when I heard it, I thought I was hearing mortar fire, which is probably what an "air cannon" sounds like. I was definitely scared, whatever the explanation.

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