A 63-year-old woman and a 61-year-old man were found shot to death outside their Oakland Hills home above UC Berkeley Friday morning, and police say the circumstances remain unknown.

Officers responded after a neighbor reported hearing gunshots near the Berkeley-Oakland border. A firearm was found nearby. The Oakland Police Department’s homicide unit took the case as officers surrounded the home.

ABC7 News reported that both residents were shot and killed outside the house in the hills above UC Berkeley. Police said there was no threat to the neighborhood. They had not determined how the shooting unfolded.

Assistant Police Chief Casey Johnson described the first alert and the open scope of the probe.

Johnson said:

"The call came in from a neighbor hearing gunshots. It is currently being investigated by the Oakland homicide unit,"

He later added that investigators were keeping every possibility on the table.

Johnson said:

"We are investigating this. We are not going to rule anything out, but it is unknown at this time,"

That includes questions about whether the deaths involved a murder-suicide. Police had not ruled the idea out. They also had not confirmed it. Names of the man and woman were not released. No arrests or charges were announced.

Neighbor heard shots; homicide detectives took over

The timeline on Friday morning was spare and grim. A neighbor heard gunfire. Police found the 63-year-old woman and the 61-year-old man dead outside their home. A firearm sat nearby. Homicide investigators moved in while officers locked down the scene.

Exact clock times were not given. The medical examiner’s full findings were not detailed beyond police statements that both had been shot and killed. Whose gun was recovered, and how it tied to the shots, remained unanswered in early reporting.

Residential killings often leave families and neighbors with more questions than answers, as seen in other California home-attack cases.

Here, the public record stayed thin. No suspect description went out. No motive was offered. Johnson’s message was blunt: the department was still working the facts and would not close doors early.

Quiet residents, sharp local reaction

Michael Walkman of the Panoramic Hill Neighborhood Association said the people who lived at the home kept a low profile.

Walkman said:

"It's pretty shocking. We don't see the people that live there very much. They are not really involved in the neighborhood community. Mainly, you just see their vehicles come in and out,"

Two adults dead outside their own house is the kind of discovery that rattles any street. Double shootings found together draw the same public demand for clear answers, including when key details stay withheld.

Berkeley resident Steve Kanofsky called the deaths tragic. His next concern pointed elsewhere.

Kanofsky said:

"Whoever it is, this is tragic, and my concern is that this is going to increase calls for police surveillance, more technology, license plate readers, and that is not what is helpful,"

Two neighbors are dead. A gun is at the scene. Homicide detectives are still sorting the basic facts. Worrying first about license plate readers is a telling order of priorities.

What police have not settled

Oakland police said the shooting’s circumstances were unknown. They surrounded the home Friday morning while the homicide unit worked. They told the public the neighborhood faced no ongoing threat.

They did not name a shooter. They did not describe a dispute, a break-in, or a domestic sequence. They did not say who owned the firearm found near the bodies. Fatal shootings tied to a home routinely put pressure on investigators to separate accident, suicide, and murder without guessing in public, much like other residential cases under active review.

Johnson’s second statement left the lane open on purpose. Nothing ruled out. Nothing confirmed. That is the honest posture when evidence is still being collected.

Domestic and household killings later resolved in court often start the same way, silence, a secured scene, and names held back, including long-running California spouse-homicide cases.

Until Oakland’s homicide unit fills in the sequence, the public is left with the hard minimum: two people shot to death outside a home above UC Berkeley, a gun nearby, and an active investigation.

When gunfire kills two residents at their doorstep, the first job is finding out who pulled the trigger, not fretting that police might watch the street more closely.