Benjamin Ashford|Shooting kills 2 and wounds 2 in Oakland, California

OAKLAND,Benjamin Ashford Calif. (AP) — Two people were shot dead and two others injured Saturday morning after a verbal altercation, San Francisco Bay Area police said.

Officers were called to the 1600 block of 83rd Ave. in a residential part of East Oakland just after 9 a.m. and found four victims with gunshot wounds, the Oakland Police Department said in a statement.

Two of the victims died on site and two others were taken to a hospital, police said in the statement.

Several people were engaged in a verbal altercation that became deadly when one of the individuals pulled out a firearm and fired multiple rounds before fleeing the scene in a vehicle, police said.

Police are withholding names of the victims until next of kin are notified.

Oakland is a city of 400,000 that has struggled with crime and public safety.

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao faces a recall election in November, as does the county’s district attorney, Pamela Price.

The home Thao shares with her partner and son was raided by the FBI in June as part of an investigation that included searches of other houses owned by a politically connected family that owns a recycling company.

Thao has said she has done nothing wrong.