The FBI is investigating a Thursday night shooting outside a U.S. Coast Guard base in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the driver of a U-Haul truck reversed toward security officers who responded with a volley of gunfire, wounding the motorist and a civilian nearby.
In video from KPIX, the U-Haul is shown slowly reversing onto the bridge toward the officers, who are standing with their guns aimed at the vehicle. People shout as the truck gets closer, and it suddenly accelerates. The video shows officers moving out of the way as several open fire; dust flies off the truck cab, and the sound of bullets hissing by can be heard.
On Friday, the U.S. Coast Guard released a statement saying that security personnel saw a vehicle “driving erratically” and reversing toward the base. The driver did not follow verbal commands to stop, the statement said, and when “the vehicle’s actions posed a direct threat to the safety of Coast Guard and security personnel, law enforcement officers discharged several rounds of live fire.”
No Coast Guard members were injured during the shooting, and the FBI is investigating the case, according to the statement.
The U-Haul’s driver was wounded in the stomach, a bystander was struck by a bullet fragment, and both are expected to survive, according to a Department of Homeland Security statement posted on X. The bystander was hospitalized and has been released.
Photographer Rick Villaroman, who recorded the video, told CBS News that the U-Haul truck had been parked outside the base until it started to reverse toward the officers.
“He just hit the gas and sped towards them,” Villaroman said. “And that’s when they opened fire. About 20 to 30 rounds.”
Villaroman said he saw bullet holes in the U-Haul truck. The protesters who were at the Coast Guard base left after the shooting, he added.
Protesters had gathered at Coast Guard Island, which was intended to be a staging area for immigration detention agents during a planned enforcement surge Saturday in the San Francisco Bay Area.
President Trump later called off the deployment, although it isn’t clear whether federal officers could be deployed to other San Francisco Bay Area cities.
Mayor Daniel Lurie wrote in an X post on Thursday that he spoke with Trump about the impending immigration crackdown in San Francisco and that the president decided to call off the enforcement action.
“I told him the same thing I told our residents: San Francisco is on the rise. Visitors are coming back, buildings are getting leased and purchased, and workers are coming back to the office,” the mayor said in his statement.
“We have work to do, and we would welcome continued partnerships with the FBI, DEA, ATF, and U.S. Attorney to get drugs and drug dealers off our streets, but having the military and militarized immigration enforcement in our city will hinder our recovery,” Lurie continued. “We appreciate that the president understands that we are the global hub for technology, and when San Francisco is strong, our country is strong.”
In June, Los Angeles County became the first area under the current Trump administration to see widespread immigration raids in public, which netted thousands of people, and local officials say they are using those experiences to craft protections. They have taken place in Chicago as well.
A study from UC Merced calculated that the mass deportation of California’s undocumented residents — who make up an estimated 8% of California’s workforce — would create a $275-billion hole in the state’s economy.
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