Suspect Wounded In Bizarre Livermore Officer-Involved Shooting Identified
LIVERMORE (CBS SF) –- The suspect wounded early Wednesday after he threatened two Livermore police officers with his vehicle while they stood on a roadway has been identified as 38-year-old Matthew Kelly, according to authorities.
The officers were investigating an unrelated suspected drunk driving incident when Kelly drove at them in his car, leading the officers to open fire on the vehicle.
Livermore Police Spokesman Officer Art Rosas said the strange incident began around 3:30 a.m. when two Livermore patrol officers pulled over a vehicle on the Airway Blvd. offramp from eastbound I-580 to investigation the driver for possibly driving under the influence.
Since the traffic stop took place on busy Kitty Hawk Road, which runs parallel to the I-580 freeway, the officers thought for safety reason they would walk the suspect to a nearby access road to administer a field sobriety test.
"Within a matter of moments, the driver [of a black vehicle] all of a sudden approached from Airway Blvd and made a hard turn in the direction of the officers and the person they were speaking with," Rosas said.
"The officers discharged their firearms, the driver was able to make a u-turn at which point it [the car] stopped and our officers were able to take that driver into custody," Rosas continued.
The driver suffered a thigh wounds from the officers' hail of bullets. He was arrested and taken to a local hospital for treatment. No one else was injured.
Shortly after the shooting, a section of 580 was closed down for about 40 minutes for security reasons.
"We do everything we can to make an area safe, and we always assume that there are others that may be a part of this that maybe are hiding," said Rosas.
Rosas said investigators did not find any connection between the two drivers. The attempted assault appeared to be a random act.
The other driver was detained as a witness to the officer-involved shooting. It was not known if the driver was cited for driving under the influence.
The freeway was closed around 4 a.m. for police activity before being reopened around 40 minutes later. The incident remains under investigation.
Kelly has connections to Newark, Fremont and Union City as well as Meridian, ID.
He has been charged with three counts of assault with a deadly weapon: two counts against a peace officer and one count against a civilian.
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