2 Injured After Officers Shoot at Truck Outside Alameda Base Following Day of Protests

At least two people were injured Thursday night when law enforcement officers opened fire on a U-Haul truck trying to back onto the bridge to Alameda’s Coast Guard Island, where federal agents arrived earlier in the day for what was expected to be a major immigration enforcement escalation in the area.

The shooting occurred around 10 p.m., hours after hundreds of people had dispersed following protests there for much of the day against the Border Patrol officers’ arrival.

“The truck driver was wounded in the stomach and is being held for mental health evaluation,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement. “A bystander was struck by a fragment, treated at a local hospital, and released.”

The Coast Guard said law enforcement officers opened fire on a U-Haul truck after its driver defied commands and backed onto the bridge that leads to the island base, reversing toward a blockade of officers and law enforcement vehicles shutting off access to the island, which is usually closed to the public. Officials have not specified what agency the officers were from.

Video footage captured by KTVU and KPIX shows a U-Haul truck line up facing away from the bridge before slowly reversing onto it.

Officers can be heard yelling at the driver before shooting repeatedly at the truck for multiple seconds. After the initial gunshots, the van reverses more quickly for another few seconds before coming to a halt and quickly pulling forward.

The vehicle appears to pause for about 30 seconds at the intersection leading off of the bridge before driving away.

The driver, along with another person not in the vehicle, were injured in the shooting, according to multiple reports.

“Coast Guard personnel issued multiple verbal commands to stop the vehicle, the driver failed to comply and proceeded to put the vehicle in reverse,” the Coast Guard said in a statement. “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.”

The Coast Guard said none of its personnel were injured during the incident.

The FBI is leading an investigation into the shooting, and agents were on the scene early Friday, with a block cordoned off in each direction surrounding the intersection near the bridge at Embarcadero and Dennison Street.

“At the request of the U.S. Coast Guard, the FBI is investigating a shooting incident that occurred around 10 p.m. last night on Coast Guard Island in Alameda,” spokesperson Cameron Polan told KQED. “At this time, the incident appears to be isolated, and there is no known current threat to the public.”

A group of about a dozen protesters were allowed back to the intersection after agents departed around 9 a.m.

A peaceful crowd of around 50 people gathered throughout the morning, though at one point officers fired what appeared to be pepper balls at a woman trying to drive up to the base.

Rose Strauser, who was among the activists, told KQED that the woman was not affiliated with the protest, but was trying to access a health center on the base to get medication.

“I don’t think she got hit because she was in her car, but she’s obviously really shaken up,” Strauser said.

KQED’s Beth LaBerge and Nastia Voynovskaya contributed to this report.