Driver Shot On I-80 In San Pablo; 2nd Shooting In Area In As Many Months
SAN PABLO (CBS SF) -- The California Highway Patrol is investigating a freeway shooting that injured at least one person on westbound Interstate Highway 80 in San Pablo Thursday afternoon.
The shooting occurred around 3:22 p.m., when the CHP began receiving reports of a possible shooting.
Officers located an abandoned black Ford SUV with damage from gunshots and a collision on the right-hand embankment just before San Pablo Dam Road, CHP officials said.
In interviews with witnesses, investigators learned a sedan had pulled up next to the Ford on the freeway and the occupants had opened fire.
The Ford swerved into another vehicle in a collision that did not cause any injuries before coming to a stop on the embankment. The driver and passengers fled on foot, CHP officials said.
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Officer later discovered a 30-year-old man at a Denny's restaurant on San Pablo Road with a minor gunshot wound to his arm. A waitress at the restaurant aided the victim by putting pressure on the wound.
"I had a cloth and put it on his wound and put pressure on it," Cynthia Lopez said.
"I just wanted to be there for him. Because if it happened to anyone of us, you'd want someone to like kind of be there for you in those moments, you know?" Lopez said.
Paramedics came in and took the 30-year-old Richmond man to a nearby hospital.
The other person in the Ford fled the scene and CHP officials did not have a description this evening or information on whether that person was injured.
The San Pablo Dam Road off-ramp, which was closed by the incident, was reopened around 5:41 p.m., and all lanes on the freeway had reopened by shortly before 7 p.m.
Today's shooting follows at least three that occurred on Interstate Highway 80 in the East Bay last month.
A family of three was shot at while driving east in Berkeley between Ashby and University avenues on Nov. 24, and suffered minor injuries from shattered glass.
San Mateo resident Anthonio Ragland, 25, was shot and killed and his female passenger injured on Nov. 10 while driving east in Pinole near Pinole Valley Road. And a man was shot and injured in San Pablo on Nov. 2 near San Pablo Road.
CHP investigators last month said they were looking at possible links between the Nov. 2 and Nov. 10 shootings.
Officials today said there is no reason to think the public is being targeted at random on the freeway.
"Thought it is too soon in our investigation to determine if these shooting incidents are connected, it is clear that the victims are being specifically targeted," the CHP said in a statement.
Witnesses to today's incident are asked to call the CHP at 1 (800) TELL-CHP (835-5247) or the investigative services unit at (510) 622-4609
This was the second recent shooting in the same area of Highway 80, after an incident on Nov. 2 near San Pablo Dam Road in which a man was found suffering multiple gunshot wounds in a car stopped along the highway's shoulder.
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