Shocking dashcam footage of a couple narrowly dodging a stray bullet inside their vehicle while driving on a Northern California highway in the Bay Area has gone viral.
Garrett Mason and his fiancée Tina Do were leaving work in San Leandro near Oakland on June 14 when they got caught in the crossfire of a shooting as they headed eastbound on Interstate 580.
"They just shot through our f'king window," Mason was heard saying in the footage.
He asked Do if she was okay after she was showered with window fragments after what appeared to be a bullet shooting through the vehicle's windshield.
You can watch the viral footage, below.
The couple appeared to have survived without suffering major injuries.
Mason posted the footage on Instagram two weeks later and it went viral overnight.
He recalled the incident that could have ended fatally in an interview with CBS News.
“One of the vehicle’s passengers got outside of their window, basically sat up on their passenger window, and opened fire at the car that was tailing them,” said Mason.
“One of the bullets happened to go through our windshield.”
The California Highway Patrol is currently investigating the incident in an area of the state where shootings are all too frequent.
Speaking to ABC 7, Do recalled the tragic death of Jasper Wu, a toddler who was senselessly killed by a stray bullet in November when the family car he was riding in as they drove along I-880 in Oakland was caught in a crossfire.
The toddler died just a month shy of his second birthday.
"I grew up in the South Bay so it’s like my family is all here," said Do. "And hearing that story about how on 880 not that long ago about a two-year-old boy. Now that it’s like personally hit me and you don’t want it to affect anyone else."
“It’s really disappointing it’s happening in our hometown," she added.
Although a detective is working with the couple on their case, Mason is not optimistic the incident will lead to any arrests because he was unable to capture the license plates of the vehicles involved in the shootout, or images of the shooter.
However, the couple is are that things could have turned out significantly worse.
“Unfortunately we were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Also, luck at the right time,” the couple said.
“People have commented if you were a second faster in your car or a second slower how could that have changed where the bullet went."
"But we can’t think too much about the what ifs. It’s just where we’re at. So we can say we literally dodged a bullet.”
There were reportedly 48 shootings in the Bay Area in the course of a year–and many of the cases left little evidence.
In May, after dozens of shootings and lives lost, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced funding to install a network of closed-circuit cameras along freeways in the Bay Area, and other areas in the state including Alameda, Contra Costa, Los Angeles, and Orange counties.
