A 9-year-old boy was struck and injured by gunfire in a vehicle-to-vehicle shooting along Interstate 580 in Oakland late Tuesday, according to the California Highway Patrol.
The shooting occurred just before 10 p.m. as a woman and the boy were traveling along eastbound I-580 east of Fruitvale Avenue, the CHP said. The vehicle exited the freeway and crashed on surface streets.
Oakland police officers responded to the crash at 35th and Brookdale avenues, and video from the scene shows the wreckage of a dark colored sedan with at least one bullet hole. The woman suffered non-life-threatening injuries from the wreck, and the boy was found with a gunshot wound, the CHP said.
A witness told NBC Bay Area she heard the crash and ran to the wreckage to find a woman driver badly hurt and a child in the car who had been shot.
East Oakland neighbors said it was much more than an average car accident.
"There were eight to 10 bullet holes on the passenger side," a neighbor who chose to remain anonymous said.
Another witness identified only as Lavon told NBC Bay Area the woman crashed into a utility truck and spun out on 35th Avenue. That's when neighbors saw the boy.
"He was saying he was in pain and I asked him where he was hurting, he showed me his hip and he was shot in the hip," Lavon said. "All he said was that someone was chasing them and he didn’t know who."
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The boy and woman were taken to a local hospital and expected to recover, the CHP said. No suspects were identified or arrested.
Shootings and violent crimes on freeways have become such a widespread problem that is prompting the state to put 200 more cameras on freeways in the Bay Area and Southern California.
Last week, Caltrans confirmed drivers will start to see those cameras soon in Oakland and surrounding areas.
Anyone with information about the shooting should call the CHP Investigation Tipline at (707) 917-4491.
It's the second freeway shooting in the Bay Area in less than 24 hours. On Tuesday afternoon, an off-duty San Jose police officer's vehicle was shot while he was driving along northbound Highway 101 near Highway 85 in South San Jose. The officer wasn't hurt, but a bullet hole was found in the vehicle's passenger door.
