UNION CITY — The California Highway Patrol arrested a suspect in an Interstate 880 road rage shooting with the help of dashboard camera footage and an alert rookie officer, authorities said Friday.
The shooting happened just before 3 p.m. on Wednesday in the northbound lanes of I-880 south of Alvarado-Niles Road in Union City.
Before the gunfire, two 36-year-old men in separate vehicles began cutting each other off.
The CHP said the 36-year-old Oakland man driving the green Toyota then shot at the van, shattering glass on the passenger side window. The victim driver, also 36, was not hit by a bullet but suffered minor injuries from the broken glass. He did not require hospitalization.
The dashboard camera in the van recorded the shooting and captured images of the shooter, authorities said.
CHP Officer Kylie Musselman said Friday the actual shooting was not reported until about 4 p.m. Wednesday, when the head of the company that owns the van notified the CHP and he and the victim came to the agency’s Hayward office.
Musselman said it turned out that before that happened, CHP Officer Jan Manalac, an officer for less than a year, was already investigating reports from witnesses of reckless driving involving what turned out to be the suspect prior to the shooting. One witness got the license plate of the suspect’s vehicle and officers had been alerted to be on the lookout for the vehicle.
When Manalac realized the reckless driving and shooting were possibly connected, he viewed the dash cam video and was able to develop enough information to confirm the incidents were related and identify the suspect, Musselman said.
“If it weren’t for him the suspect might have gotten away,” she said.
The suspect was in custody by noon Thursday. He was booked on suspicion of attempted murder, assault with a firearm and shooting into an inhabited vehicle. He is being held without bail at Santa Rita Jail and is scheduled to be arraigned next Tuesday.
The CHP’s Golden Gate Division Special Investigations Unit served a search warrant at his home and found a pistol, shotgun and a large amount of ammunition, the CHP said.
The investigation is continuing. The CHP is asking anyone in the area of I-880 near Alvarado-Niles Road who may have witnessed the shooting or reckless driving to call them at 510-489-1500.
