Trucker ‘very fortunate’ to be OK when man with AR-15 fires on him in Modesto, CHP says
A Stockton man faces charges including attempted murder after firing upon the driver of a big rig in Modesto, the California Highway Patrol reported.
A bullet struck the driver’s side door but did not go through. The driver, a 25-year-old Livingston man, was not injured, according to a news release.
The shooting on northbound Highway 99 just north of Pelandale Avenue was reported about 10:45 a.m. Tuesday. In the 911 call, the victim described the assailant and said he was driving a white GMC SUV.
Responding officers talked with the truck driver when he pulled over a bit north near Kiernan Avenue. The shooting occurred in slower traffic in a construction zone, CHP Modesto office spokesman Officer Thomas Olsen said. The driver said his attacker, who was in the fast lane, pulled alongside him and fired.
The victim said the man, later identified as Derrick Terrell Thomas, 25, is unknown to him.
The victim’s 2020 Kenworth tractor was struck once, on its door. Olsen said the door has four layers of metal, and the bullet —believed to have been fired from an AR-15 rifle — pierced three of them. The impact shattered the window of the door, as well. The officer called the victim “very fortunate” that the round didn’t get all the way through the door.
The news release says Thomas got off the freeway and was seen driving west toward San Joaquin County. While driving, he brandished his firearm two more times toward other motorists.
One of those motorists got his license plate number.
About 1:30 p.m., officers with the Delta Regional Auto Theft Team spotted the GMC at a gas station on South Wilson Way in Stockton. Thomas was arrested about 2:40.
A records check found he is a prior felon, the news release says. A search of his home produced a black AR-15 rifle consistent to the weapon described by the victims.
The CHP booked Thomas into the Stanislaus County Public Safety Center on charges of attempted murder, shooting at an inhabited vehicle, assault with a deadly weapon and brandishing a firearm. An additional charge of brandishing will be filed with the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office, the news release says.
Thomas remained in custody Wednesday afternoon, with bail set at $700,000.
This story was originally published February 10, 2021 at 2:18 PM.
