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Homeless Man Who Allegedly Hurled Concrete at Car on Hwy 101 Charged With Attempted Murder

REDWOOD CITY (CBS SF) -- A 37-year-old transient has been charged with attempted murder and other offenses for throwing a chunk of concrete at a car on Highway 101 in Redwood City that seriously injured a man inside on Sunday afternoon, San Mateo County prosecutors said Thursday.

Earl Adams, who was living in a tent behind the Good Nite Inn on Veterans Boulevard near Whipple Avenue near the highway, was walking alongside the highway around 1:35 p.m. Sunday when he threw the chunk of concrete at a car with a 41-year-old woman driving south with a 42-year-old man in the passenger seat, according to the district attorney's office.

The concrete shattered the windshield and struck the man in the head. The woman was able to stop the car and they called 911, and the man was taken to Stanford Hospital and remained in the intensive care unit Thursday with a skull fracture, orbital fractures, two brain bleeds and a laceration to his head requiring 50 sutures, prosecutors said. The woman also suffered some cuts and bruises.

California Highway Patrol officers searched the area and found Adams in his tent and the woman identified him as the person who threw the concrete. Investigators determined Adams had also thrown large rocks at moving cars on Highway 101 two days earlier and also on Dec. 30, causing damage to vehicles but no injuries to the people inside, prosecutors said.

According to the district attorney's office, Adams has major mental health issues and said he heard voices and threw the rocks, and had also smoked methamphetamine before doing it.

He refused to be tested for COVID-19 after being booked into jail, so did not appear at his arraignment Wednesday. The case was continued to Feb. 1, and Adams remains in custody on $4 million bail, prosecutors said.

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