OAKLAND, Calif. - Oakland city officials and organizers of Oakland First Fridays pushed back Sunday against the Oakland Police Officers Association's assertion that shootings early Saturday morning were connected to the festival.

The Oakland Police Department said Sunday that the initial investigation into shootings early Saturday morning that killed two people and wounded at least four suggested there was no connection between the outbreak of violence and the free festival that had ended hours earlier.

On Saturday, the president of the Oakland Police Officers Association blamed the crowd attracted by the festival and said big events like First Fridays could not be sufficiently secured by the police department.

Oakland First Fridays directors said they were "deeply saddened" by the

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