"An armed society is..." a society with running gun battles at funerals

Gunfire erupted inside an East Oakland church during a funeral Tuesday for an 18-year-old man slain at his birthday party, but no one was struck by bullets, police said.

The shooting happened about 12:20 p.m. inside the Cosmopolitan Baptist Church at 988 85th Ave., where more than 300 mourners were attending a funeral for Davante Riley, said Officer Holly Joshi, an Oakland police spokeswoman.…

"Everybody started shooting," said a mourner who asked that she be identified only as Shawnie. "Some people came from another area that didn't get along with (Riley's) group or whatever. Everybody was running. Everybody was scared."

Officers arrived and found "several people outside engaged in a fight, and several of those people were armed," Joshi said.…

Witnesses and police said the shooting happened as the funeral was drawing to a close. Numerous people pulled out weapons as mourners were getting ready for the procession to a Hayward cemetery.

Shots were fired in the church, and as people fled, there was a "large-scale fight in the middle of the street," Joshi said.

"We are very lucky that no one was hit by these bullets," Joshi said.