Two girls, 15 and 16, shot to death in Oakland

Bobbie Sartain, 16 (left) and Raquel Gerstel, 15 (rt)

Two girls, who had been friends since age 8, were found shot to death in Oakland, California.  Bobbie Sartain, 16, and Raquel Gerstel, 15, were shot multiple times and killed in the early morning hours on the streets of Oakland.  Some 30-40 shots had been fired by an unknown assailant.  Motive is unknown.

From an article:

It was 4 a.m. Sunday when the best friends showed up at Chuck Briggs' aging mobile home at High Street and MacArthur Boulevard. Briggs is Bobbie's uncle and the two girls went to his home occasionally to raid the refrigerator, charge their cellphones and make phone calls, he said. 

But on Saturday night, the girls were supposed to be at Raquel's home in San Leandro for a sleepover. .... 

When they turned up at the mobile home in the pre-dawn hours Sunday, Raquel was arguing with someone on the phone, and Briggs told them to lie down and go to sleep, the mother said. 

"And they mouthed off a little," said Bambi Sartain. "Her uncle told her to leave, and Raquel wanted to leave and Bobbie went with her. .... 

"They didn't say where they (had been) or where they were going" when they left the mobile home, the mother said. 

The teens were found about 6 a.m., each shot multiple times and lying on the asphalt in the 2600 block of Minna Avenue near the park. Neighbors who heard the gunshots ran outside and saw the girls on the ground, crouched down to hold their hands and called 911. 

Bobbie Sartain was a "beautiful girl" with five siblings, her mother said. 

"She had a bright future," Bambi Sartain said. "I'll never be able to get over (her death) in my lifetime. She was my heart." 

The deaths were the 114th and 115th this year in a city that has seen several young victims of violence; Raquel was the youngest female victim so far this year. 

Bambi Sartain said Bobbie loved animals and wanted to become a veterinarian. 

"She was a good girl and she got caught up with something she shouldn't have been involved in," Sartain said. "She was a teenager and kind of unruly, but I thought there was more time." 

Police do not have a motive for the killings and don't know why the girls were on that street alone at the early hour. No arrests have been made.

.