Sheriff’s recruit shot, killed while driving home on Oakland freeway

An Alameda County Sheriff’s Office recruit was fatally shot Tuesday afternoon while driving home on an Oakland freeway, authorities said.

The 28-year-old , who was not identified, was traveling west alone in his personal vehicle about 4:30 p.m. on Interstate 580 near the Bay Bridge Toll Plaza when he was shot by an unknown assailant, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

The recruit‘s car then veered to the left and struck a guardrail, according to the California Highway Patrol, which responded to the crash.

The man was taken to Highland Hospital, where he died from his injuries, said Sgt. J.D. Nelson, a spokesperson for the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office.

A video shared by the Sheriff’s Office showed law enforcement personnel somberly saluting a flag-draped stretcher as the recruit’s body was transported from the hospital to the coroner’s bureau.

Those who attended the impromptu gathering “were just giving him his due respect,” Nelson said.

The recruit, who was set to graduate next month, was heading to his home in San Francisco when the shooting occurred, Nelson said.

“This is not unusual, sadly, for the travelers of the Bay Area” freeways, Nelson said.

“But to have it hit home like this, certainly, our hearts ache,” he added.

The Oakland Police Department investigated 134 homicides in 2021, the most since 2012, according to year-end data.

Nelson said that figure doesn’t include an additional five freeway homicides investigated by the CHP.

The increase is reflected on both a state and national level.

California saw a 31% jump in homicides in 2020, mirroring a national trend that saw the largest one-year increase since the FBI began collecting numbers in the 1960s, the bureau said in September.

The national increase was 29.4%, according to FBI statistics.