Police seek shooter who killed Oakland muralist

“He was just an incredible spirit”, said Burke, an Oakland artist and educator.

Ramos was “a fallen soldier who loved art and loved the community”, said Amana Harris, executive director of the art group, told the mourners. The mural contrasts sharply with West Oakland’s rougher side of drugs, poverty and homicides.

As a nonprofit’s mural of West Oakland was taking shape Tuesday, one of the artists bringing vibrancy to a rundown freeway underpass was shot and killed after an apparent argument with the shooter, authorities said.

The artists were working on the mural as part of its Oakland Super Heroes Mural Project project. Ramos was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said.

Since news of Ramos’ death has spread, numerous artists who worked with him on the project or on other murals in the past have posted memorials on social media. 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. He stayed on, eventually as a paid artist to work on the West Street wall, where he was killed.

Organizers said students from West Oakland Middle School planned to help paint the mural along with professional muralists at an event scheduled for Wednesday.

Police are interviewing witnesses, including artists who were with the victim, and will review footage from surveillance cameras in the area, Oakland police spokeswoman Johnna Watson said. “We’re doing these murals especially because there’s violence and incidents here like this”.

In his caption for one photo, Ramos wrote of the mural’s outline drawing of a woman with her arms outstretched: “I can’t wait to see here get painted in”.

“It’s not about the cape and the superpowers”, he said. A year ago at this time there 56 homicides. The group urged the community to stand up to violence. Police are still searching for the suspect and are asking anyone with information to call the police department.