Hayward DMV Reopens After Shooting, Search For Suspect Continues
HAYWARD (CBS SF) -- The Department of Motor Vehicles in Hayward delayed opening Thursday after police shot at an at-large suspect while attempting to detain him near the building Wednesday afternoon.
The office, located at 150 Jackson St., opened at noon after employees were debriefed about the shooting in the parking lot that occurred shortly after 2 p.m.
Counselors were also on hand to talk with employees, who arrived at the office at 8 a.m.
"It was a scary situation for them," DMV spokeswoman Jessica Gonzalez said. "They weren't ready to open."
The suspect in the shooting remained at large as of Thursday morning, Hayward police Lt. Mark Stuart said.
The male suspect in his late teens or early 20s, who was about 5 feet 9 inches tall with a thin build and medium complexion and wearing a red baseball cap was reportedly seen with a gun near the Downtown Hayward BART station around 2 p.m.
The suspect was part of a group of four males that an Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District bus driver saw walking near the station when he pulled a gun out of a backpack, Stuart said.
BART and Hayward police were notified and the group was stopped on Winton Avenue.
The suspect with the gun fled, while the three others were detained, and ran toward the DMV, jumping a fence into the parking lot. A responding officer found him and asked him to drop his weapon, Stuart said.
Stuart said the suspect had a gun in his hand that he pointed at the officer instead of dropping the weapon. That was when the officer fired at the suspect.
Stuart said there was no indication that the suspect was struck.
The suspect then ran off, jumping onto Magna Avenue, a cul-de-sac off of Winton Avenue, where a witness said he was hiding in an area between the back of a business and a fence overgrown with ivy.
Police set up a perimeter around the DMV and the neighborhood but Stuart said the suspect managed to evade authorities.
The DMV closed around 3 p.m. because of the shooting.
Stuart said two of the three group members, including a 17-year-old juvenile and a man, were arrested on unrelated charges.
All three have been uncooperative in the search for the gunman, he said.
Stuart said police haven't been able to identify the at-large suspect and do not have any leads as to where to search for him.
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