OAKLAND — Authorities said a man was fatally shot in his car Friday night on Interstate 880 in Oakland in an incident that snarled the freeway for five hours and follows a string of other freeway shootings in the city.
Several sources including veteran East Bay sportswriter Jeff Faraudo, ABC news and former Major League Baseball player Ruppert Jones identified the victim as former UC-Berkeley basketball standout Gene Ransom. But the California Highway Patrol and Alameda County sheriff-coroner would not confirm the shooting victim’s identity Saturday afternoon.
Another one of my great childhood teammates passed way yesterday, Gene Ransom. I had the privilege to play basketball one year with Gene and believe me it was a privilege. Gene now gets to play with Glenn Burke and Claudell Washington in heaven.
— Ruppert Jones (@JonesRuppert) February 5, 2022
Firefighters found the man dead from an apparent gunshot wound around 5:45 p.m. at Oak Street near the Broadway off-ramp, said Michael Hunt, a spokesperson for the Oakland Fire Department.
The victim had been driving north on the highway when he was struck by gunfire, causing him to veer his vehicle to the right and crash into a guardrail, the California Highway Patrol said in a statement. He was declared dead at the scene.
The CHP closed all northbound lanes of the freeway, reopening them around 10 p.m.
It was the latest of several recent freeway shootings in Oakland. Last month, an Alameda County sheriff’s recruit, 28-year-old David V. Nguyen, was fatally shot on Interstate 580 on as he drove home from the academy. Nguyen had been set to graduate this month, according to authorities.
And in November, a 23-month-old toddler from Fremont was killed by a stray bullet while his family traveled south on Interstate 880 in Oakland. That same month, a passenger in an SUV that was traveling on Interstate 80 in Oakland was killed during a shooting on the freeway near the Bay Bridge toll plaza.
Check back for updates.
Staff writer Shomik Mukherjee and the Associated Press contributed to this report.