2 People Injured In I-15 Shooting, 1 In Critical Condition
Jan 25, 2021, 8:56 AM | Updated: 8:43 pm
LEHI, Utah – Two people were injured in a shooting on I-15 in Utah County on Monday morning, authorities said.
One of the victims is in critical condition.
Breaking: I-15 road rage shooting. Police now investigating freeway back open @KSL5TV pic.twitter.com/MW3bU9RExz
— Dan Rascon (@TVDanRascon) January 25, 2021
The incident began at approximately 7:30 a.m. The driver of a black truck and the driver of a white truck that was carrying four passengers got into a road rage incident while driving south on I-15.
“We know that they were in some type of road rage scenario, leapfrogging each other doing silly things,” said Lt. Nick Street with UHP.
Investigators said the two vehicles began to crash into each other.
Troopers said the driver of the black truck then pulled out a gun and began shooting at the white truck, hitting the driver and a back seat passenger.
They somehow manage to drive themselves to the hospital with the driver arriving in critical condition but is expected to survive. The injured passenger is also expected to be OK.
During the collisions, the black truck was disabled and ended up on the side of the freeway near the Lehi Main Street exit.
“They did crash more than once. They did collide and then shots were fired before or after that,” said Lt. Street,
He said this could have easily have turned into a deadly situation involving others on the freeway. “Just extremely lucky nobody was killed. You got bullets flying around the interstate at a high volume traffic time.”
“These are adults, and this is definitely not adult behavior,” Street said. “That it would come to this is disconcerting.”
The shooting completely shut down southbound lanes for nearly an hour as investigators worked to gather evidence.
Investigators said the suspect is in custody and is cooperating with police. The passengers of the white truck are also cooperating and appear to be a work crew that was heading to work Monday morning.
Further information on what led to the road rage incident was not immediately available.
Lt. Street said road rage incidents along I-15 are skyrocketing. In 2020 UHP had 33 cases. That’s about a 33% jump from 2019.
“Whether there is a definite correlation between a rise in these incidents and the pandemic I wouldn’t be the expert to say,” said Lt. Street.
