Westbound Highway 24 was temporarily shut down in the Orinda area late Wednesday morning due to a shooting, the California Highway Patrol said.
This marks the third freeway shooting in the Bay Area in eight days.
Wednesday's shooting was reported at about 10:30 a.m. near Fish Ranch Road, the CHP said. The driver wasn’t injured, but the incident brought traffic to a standstill.
"I'm just grateful that no one was injured," said Candace Andersen, Chair of Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors.
Officers said people inside two vehicles began shooting at each other, leading to a stray bullet hitting a third vehicle.
CHP officers shut down all westbound lanes of the highway to search for evidence after a vehicle appeared to have had its back window shot out.
The CHP did not immediately provide any suspect information.
On Tuesday, CHP officers in Oakland investigated a possible shooting on southbound Interstate 880 at Broadway. Last Tuesday, a person was shot twice in the leg while driving on Highway 24 in Oakland. Investigators believe a nearby house was also hit by a stray bullet in that shooting. The CHP is hoping freeway cameras will help identify a suspect in that investigation.
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"It was another shock, just as it was last week; this typically is not what we see on Highway 24 on either side of the tunnel; it's a pretty safe area," Andersen said.
In Wednesday's shooting, Andersen noted that automatic license plate readers are on most freeway onramps and offramps around Contra Costa County and are sophisticated enough to capture the make and color of a vehicle.
"If those license plates are associated with a known felon, someone who is wanted for a crime, a car that might have been stolen, immediately the sheriff's dept gets pinged, the CHP, they're able to know that a vehicle has entered one of our communities that may be associated with some other type of crime," they said.
It's unclear if the latest incidents are the start of a new spike. The CHP said it's not uncommon to see more shootings in the spring and summer months.
