Road Rage Suspect Fires Shot At Driver On I-680
CONCORD (KPIX 5) -- A Bay Area driver says he's lucky to be alive after a road rage suspect fired a bullet at his car while traveling on Interstate 680 in the East Bay Saturday night. The gunman remained on the loose as of Monday.
This is just the latest in a string of shootings on Bay Area freeways. There have been more than 80 since late 2015.
A man says another driver shot at him between Concord and Pleasant Hill.
"He was shooting inside the vehicle at me ... he was shooting to kill," said Joe C., who wishes not to use his last name because he is worried about retaliation.
He says he was attacked just after 9 p.m. Saturday on I-680 North where the road merges with northbound I-242 by a guy in a white Mercedes who was out of control.
Joe C. said the suspect was "Swerving, driving extremely erratically. He caught my eye from a hundred yards behind me."
Suddenly, Joe says, the Mercedes got right in front his Toyota Prius and slammed on the brakes.
Joe decided to have a word with the driver.
"I rolled down my window and I said, 'I almost hit you, man ... what's your problem?'" Joe C. told KPIX 5. "He responds by saying something I can't say on the air ... but it's two words ... I turned to look straight ahead to catch up with the flow of traffic and in that split second ... Bang! ... I knew I was being shot at."
Joe C. pulled over at a Chevron off of Willow Pass in Concord.
The California Highway Patrol reports that is where police examined the victim's car and "confirmed that a single bullet was shot through the right rear window of the victims grey Toyota Prius."
You can see damage on the outside of the door caused by the bullet's impact. The bullet came through the rear passenger window and landed right through there.
Joe says it missed his head by just inches.
Joe C. said, "That round was meant to hit me. And I keep having images of 'what if, what if, what if?'"
The CHP is asking the public and other police agencies to be on the lookout for a white Mercedes Benz CLA 250 with paper plates. The suspect is a white male in his 20s or 30s with dirty brown hair.
Joe wants this guy off the streets.
"I wasn't hurt," he said. "I can live to tell the story. But I worry he will do this again to somebody else. And what happens the next time if they're not so lucky?"
