OAKLAND — With three months still to go in 2020, Oakland has already seen more homicides than in each of the previous three years, an alarming trend police and community advocates are attributing in part to the coronavirus pandemic.

The shooting deaths of a 17-year-old boy and 29-year-old man this past week raised the total number of confirmed homicides to at least 79 so far this year, 15 in September alone, according to a count by this news organization. The count reflects all killings by another person, including those that police categorize differently as “justified,” “accidental” or “by negligence.”

Oakland saw 75 homicides in 2018 and 76 in 2017.