Artist shot to death while working on community mural in Bay Area

The artistic endeavor is coordinated by the Attitudinal Healing Connect, a local group that seeks to put an end to violence in Oakland by inspiring people through art and education.

Around 200 mourners gathered to remember Antonio Ramos, 27, who was fatally shot about 10:30 a.m. Tuesday while working on the mural on the 3500 block of West Street.

The Superheroes mural is about school children and their experiences in West Oakland, said Rocabado, who described the piece as “a community service” meant to help make West Oakland “beautiful”.

The brightly-colored mural on West Street, filled with vivid paintings of Victorian houses, a creek, and trees, was meant to provide a stark contrast to the West Oakland, Calif. neighborhood at times rocked by violence, that surrounded it.

A group of about 10 artists had been working there for seven days on a mural for the Oakland Super Heroes Mural Project when the shooting occurred.

Paramedics arrived about 20 minutes after the shooting, Rocabado said, and as Ramos was taken to the hospital, “he was turning pale and vomiting”.

“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. Shortly after the argument, the other man pulled out a gun and shot the artist.

One man who placed several votive candles to spell out “AR” also declined to give his name but said Ramos had been his friend and was “a great person”.

The gunman, who remains at large, fled on food following the shooting. A detailed description of the suspect was not released.

“All they were doing was painting, trying to beautify a neighborhood that has seen its challenges”, Oakland police Lt. Roland Holmgren told the Oakland Tribune.

ArtEsteem is raising funds to complete the remaining murals through an Indiegogo campaign at www.indiegogo.com/projects/oakland-superheroes-mural-project. The public art project depicts a young boy who uses “the healing power of music” to help uplift his community, said mural art director David Burke. “This is a busy area with a mix of commercial and residential buildings so we hope someone saw something”, Watson said.

A group from the Pembroke Pines Fire Rescue Department were attacked by bees while they were working in and around a body of water, Wednesday.