Fatal gunfight on freeway
Police killing of slaying suspect on I-80 among events leading to epic traffic jam
A CHP officer watches as investigators work around a homicide suspect’s black SUV (center) in the blocked westbound lanes of Interstate 80 during the aftermath of a fatal gunfight with police.
A homicide suspect fleeing police was shot to death on Interstate 80 in Emeryville after stepping out of his SUV and firing upon officers who had popped his tires with a spike strip, authorities said, an incident that marked the peak of a chaotic and gridlocked Wednesday morning on the Bay Area’s roads and rails.
The gunfight unfolded about 9:30 a.m. after police shut down the freeway in both directions, leaving thousands of commuters stuck in a mileslong traffic jam and some diving for cover as bullets flew. One of the Bay Area’s busiest freeways was fully closed until about 11 a.m., and the westbound lanes weren’t opened until 5 p.m.
The drama came amid a series of incidents that turned the morning commute into a nightmare for thousands of people, underscoring once again how reliant the region is on a transportation system
constantly pushed to its limit.
In a four-hour span of trouble that had police and paramedics racing, an overturned semi truck forced lane closures on I-80 in Berkeley, a pedestrian was struck and killed by a car on Highway 24 in Lafayette, an AC Transit bus crash injured four people in downtown San Francisco, and a dog running wild on the tracks in Oakland prompted major BART delays.
In Santa Rosa, police said, a 38-year-old man who had left a bar before noon smashed his Toyota Tundra pickup into a half dozen vehicles and sheared off a light pole before an alarmed witness broke the driver’s side window and snatched the keys from the ignition. The driver, who allegedly had a blood-alcohol level four times the legal limit, was jailed.
The police pursuit that ended in the fatal freeway shooting started about 8:40 a.m., when police in Richmond spotted the suspect in a Fairfield homicide driving around the city, after receiving a request for assistance from their Solano County counterparts, authorities said. The man was not immediately identified, and details of the Fairfield killing were withheld.
At 9 a.m., as the suspect drove on westbound I-80 through Berkeley, California Highway Patrol officers placed a spike strip at the University Avenue exit, which the suspect ran over. With his tires flattened, he crashed into a concrete barrier on the right shoulder, then slammed into the center median and came to a halt, the CHP said.
A standoff between arriving officers and the suspect ended with an exchange of shots, officials said. The suspect was then taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
“Officers negotiated with the suspect for an extended period of time until officers received gunfire from the suspect,” said Sgt. Jeff Osgood, a Fairfield police spokesman. “Officers on scene returned fire, and the suspect was struck during the exchange.”
Fairfield and Richmond officers were involved in the shooting, but it was not immediately clear how many times they fired. The incident will be investigated by Emeryville police, said Lt. Felix Tan, a Richmond police spokesman. He said the officers will be placed on routine paid leave and the Alameda County district attorney’s office will launch an independent investigation into their actions, under protocol for police killings.
The suspect’s black 2016 Chevrolet Suburban, which was towed away, was registered to a San Francisco limo company, where managers did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
Some of the drivers who were stuck in traffic because of the chase and shooting exited their cars to watch the action. Joshua Nederhood, 21, said he saw police slowly pursuing a dark-colored SUV before they brought in dogs, set up a barricade and talked to the suspect over a megaphone. Shortly after 9:30 a.m., Nederhood said, he heard multiple shots fired and saw a man on the ground.
“There was one pop earlier, then there was a whole bunch at once. Probably at least a dozen,” he said.
Nederhood had already been caught in stalled traffic due to an earlier collision. At about 7 a.m., a big rig rammed into sand barrels on the right shoulder of eastbound I-80 near Gilman Street in Berkeley. The truck overturned and the impact sent barrels across two of the highway’s lanes, shutting them down for eight hours.
Nederhood’s usual commute of 25 to 40 minutes, from Alameda to Berkeley, stretched for hours.
“Exciting,” he said, “but not ideal.”
“Officerswithan extendedthe suspect negotiatedperiod for of time until officers received gunfire from the suspect.” Sgt. Jeff Osgood, Fairfield police
An hour later, at 8 a.m., a dog wandered onto BART tracks near the Coliseum Station in Oakland, causing major systemwide delays before police officers caught the canine.
Nearly an hour and a half after that, an AC Transit driver lost control of a bus and hit several vehicles — including another AC Transit bus — before jumping a sidewalk in downtown San Francisco, officials said. The bus veered into shrubbery and hit a light pole before crashing into scaffolding on the 200 block of Fremont Street. Four people on the bus, including the driver, suffered non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
Shortly after 11 a.m., a young woman who appeared to be jogging on eastbound Highway 24 in Lafayette was struck and killed by a vehicle, said authorities, who temporarily closed three out of four lanes. It wasn’t clear why the woman was on the freeway, and she was not immediately identified.
It was about this time, police said, when John Daniel Sullivan, 38, left a bar in Sonoma County, destined for a series of crashes. Fortunately, officials said, no one was hurt before the witnesses intervened.