On Saturday morning, February 27th, 2016, 40-year-old, Leslie Graham Jr, who was traveling westbound on I-80 in Richmond was fatally shot and killed causing his car to crash into a steep embankment.
Reports about the incident were coming into the California Highway Patrol and Golden Gate Communications Center around 1:08 am. When officers arrived, it was clear that someone had shot at the driver numerous times causing his silver Jeep SUV to go barreling off the road. His vehicle flipped several times ejecting him from the jeep. When members of the Richmond Fire Department arrived at around 1:43 am, Leslie was pronounced dead at the scene.
This shooting will be the seventh on I-80 since November of last year. All shootings took place between Pinole and Richmond, occurring in the late evening to overnight hours. Investigators believe that the victim was a target for the unknown suspect and are not ruling out that the shootings may all be connected. They believe that all seven victims were targets.
Residents in Richmond are beginning to become uneasy and are afraid to drive on the highway. Until captured, many drivers are taking a big detour to stay out of harms way. Currently, police have no leads and no suspects making it hard to ease their worried minds.
California Highway Patrol Officer Daniel Hill believes all of these shootings are related. “The last victim had strong ties to North Richmond gangs. That may be the case. What we can tell with relative certainty is that each of these incidents was a targeted incident. We believe that people known to these victims were targeted specifically. They were not random acts,” Hill said. The California Highway Patrol will be putting out extra patrols in the area to help put a stop to the shootings.
If you have any information on this incident, please call (707) 551-4100 or (510) 622-4609.
