A CHP officer is in critical condition and the suspect has died in a shooting along Interstate 680 Tuesday.
KRON 4 television is reporting the officer is on life support at John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek, but there has been no confirmation on that report.
About 10 members of the officer's family were seen leaving the hospital about 4 p.m. under the protection of security guards and CHP officers.
Law enforcement authorities were gathered all day long in an auditorium at John Muir Medical Center, where both the officer and suspect were brought after the shooting.
The wounded CHP officer has been on the force for seven years and was assigned to the Contra Costa County division out of Martinez.
Contra Costa sheriff's officials said two CHP officers in separate cars had made traffic stops on the right shoulder of I-680 near Livorna Road in Alamo at 8:20 a.m. when the gunfire erupted.
Sheriff's spokesman Jimmy Lee said the suspect was seated in a green Jeep Wrangler when he pulled out a gun and fired at the first CHP officer. That officer was critically wounded.
The second CHP officer then opened fire on the suspect, Lee said. That officer positioned himself on an embankment to shoot at the suspect, according to a Walnut Creek-to-San Ramon commuter who was driving on I-680 a short distance from the shooting scene.
Authorities are still investigating why the Wrangler was pulled over. Investigators are analyzing video from CHP dashboard cameras. The sheriff's office is investigating the case using "officer-involved" protocols, Lee said.
A number of motorists who witnessed the exchange of gunfire stopped. They were interviewed by investigators, Lee said.
Meanwhile, a second car that had been pulled over on I-680 at roughly the same time for a minor infraction apparently left the scene. Officers put out an alert seeking that car, a Nissan, "as part of due diligence," wanting to interview the driver, Lee said.
The car was located in the late morning in Danville and officers interviewed the driver, and "determined she was not related to this (shooting) incident," Lee said.
I-680 closures
Shortly after the shooting, both directions of Interstate 680 were closed while authorities investigated the incident.
The southbound lanes of Interstate 680 in the Alamo area remain were closed all afternoon. Two lanes were reopened about 4:30 p.m. and all lanes were finally open again about 7 p.m. The northbound lanes were re-opened about 1 p.m.
Patch readers stuck in traffic emailed photos and commented on the post-Labor Day traffic jam. Some reported taking an hour to go one mile.
Traffic remains snarled along Danville Boulevard this afternoon. Traffic on Main Street and Broadway in downtown Walnut Creek was also jammed.
A traffic map and photos from the crowded freeway can be seen here.
At a press conference early this afternoon, CHP Sgt. Diana McDermott said her department is thankful for "all the calls and concerns" for the officer.
"It's a difficult situation for us," said McDermott. "We've had to really reach out to each other."
Are you stuck in traffic? Snap a photo with your phone and email it to David Mills, david.mills@Patch.com. To read more about what people are saying online about the shooting, click the link.
Don't you think it might be a bit soon to jump to conclusions and make accusations, anonymously or otherwise?
in good faith, and not for compensation, renders emergency medical or nonmedical care or assistance at the scene of an emergency shall be liable for civil damages resulting from any act or omission other than an act or omission constituting gross negligence or willful or wanton misconduct. The scene of an emergency shall not include emergency departments and other places where medical care is usually offered. This subdivision shall not be construed to alter existing protections from liability for licensed medical or other personnel specified in subdivision (a) or any other law. (c) Nothing in this section shall be construed to change any existing legal duties or obligations, nor does anything in this section in any way affect the provisions in Section 1714.5 of the Civil Code, as proposed to be amended by Senate Bill 39 of the 2009–10 Regular Session of the Legislature. (d) The amendments to this section made by the act adding subdivisions (b) and (c) shall apply exclusively to any legal action filed on or after the effective date of that act. SEC. 2. This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
Do you think if this had involved only private persons that they would have put up a tent in the middle of the road and had seven or eight people scouring the roadway for evidence and "documenting" the scene? Also someone has pointed out a dead deer at the scene. What happened to the deer?
Since you've not been to any sort of an investigator school your questions are valid. Considering the fact that the entire scene needed to be processed I'd hope you would use common sense in judging how much time would be reasonably necessary to carry out the task at hand. Did you think how long it may take to find a bullet entry point in the hillside? Did you think about how long it may take to avoid damaging potential evidence while the processing was taking place?
Also, prayers are bout as useful as kids asking their imaginary friends to help.
Hey, if you think that the Constitution gives you the right to bear arms, you may be right about that. However, it doesn't say anything about the "right to purchase ammunition". Maybe if buying ammunition was banned there would be fewer killing machines in the hands of people to use against each other. I really hope that one day incidents like this will not result in more faceless statistics. Two people, both loved by those in their lives, are dead or dying. For what?
So the concerns that I think are reflected in this thread reveal that most people are skeptical about the way the government runs the roads, namely that pulling people over for victimless crimes makes the roads safer. Yes, they do have some safety related tasks. But to make it sound like its all in the public interest, well that's just lot of hooey.
Your aggressive reply to someone who disagrees with you and, unfortunately to you, has a very good point, shows who the ignorant one is.
About the ones who say the officers giving ppl tickets are just doing their job, there is a difference between those who go at REALLY high speeds and those who are barely over the speed limit and still get tickets bc. they police needs to meet their ticket quota. A police officer said this to me himself. No need to do any reasearch.
The reason (I assume) traffic was closed in both directions was that bullets were fired across all the lanes of traffic, and figuring out who shot when and in what direction is important to figure out when people get killed. Again, terribly sorry you commute was slowed down, thank goodness you survived.