Berkeley police shoot man in standoff at apartment building later evacuated for possible bomb (2025)

A 33-year-old man is in critical condition after a Berkeley police officer shot him Sunday morning outside an apartment building near downtown.

Police say they were responding to a 911 report of a woman screaming for help inside the building, at the corner of University and McGee avenues, and after a standoff, the man emerged from an apartment unit and threatened officers with a gun.

A BPD bomb squad later investigated a suspicious package containing a possible bomb at the same building, which includes Jaffa Coffee Roasters. The building was evacuated for over three hours and the immediate area blocked off, though police later let residents back in.

After police were called to the apartment, around 7 a.m., the man came out of the unit holding a gun and “made threats to shoot officers,” BPD spokesperson Officer Jessica Perry wrote in an email. Police tried to negotiate with the man and “to ascertain the safety of any other occupants,” she said.

“The subject exited the residence again with a firearm,” she said. An officer shot the man.

The man was sent to a local trauma center and was in critical condition as of Sunday morning. A victim, a woman, was also on scene but unharmed, and was cooperating with the investigation, Perry said.

Perry said police recovered a gun but the specifics of the weapon were not immediately available.

Police were still still at the scene Sunday and asked people to avoid the area of University and McGee avenues. The department’s Homicide Division and Internal Affairs Bureau are investigating, along with the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, Perry said. The officer has been placed on administrative leave, as is protocol for police shootings at BPD.

Police reopened University Avenue at approximately 3:30 p.m.

Apartment building evacuated as bomb squad investigates ‘suspicious package’

On Sunday afternoon the building where the standoff took place was evacuated. Shortly before 12:30 p.m. police sent an electronic alert again asking people to avoid the area “due to police activity involving a suspicious package.” Police said University Avenue was closed in both directions in the area.

Several police agencies, including Albany and University of California police, chipped in to cover calls around Berkeley while BPD officers were tied up at University and McGee avenues, Perry said. No first responders or bystanders were hurt.

This article was updated after publication with additional information. Berkeleyside will continue to update this article if and when new details become available.