OAKLAND, CA ‒ Two people were wounded following a late-night shooting outside a U.S. Coast Guard base where protesters were rallying against a deferred federal immigration crackdown in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The FBI is investigating the incident, which occurred around 10 p.m. on Oct. 23 after Coast Guard security personnel opened fire on a U-Haul truck that refused multiple orders to stop. The truck attempted to ram the main gate at Coast Guard Island in Alameda, California, said Lt. Krystal Wolfe, a Coast Guard spokesperson.
“The driver failed to comply and proceeded to put the vehicle in reverse ‒ suddenly accelerating backwards at a high rate of speed directly toward them,” Wolfe said in an emailed statement. “When the vehicle’s actions posed a direct threat to the safety of Coast Guard and security personnel, law enforcement officers discharged several rounds of defensive live fire.”
The U-Haul driver was wounded in the stomach and is being held in custody for a mental health evaluation, Wolfe said. A second shooting victim, a bystander, was struck by a fragment, taken to a local hospital, and later released, Wolfe said.
The Oct. 23 shooting occurred several hours after hundreds of protesters marched in front of the entrance to Coast Guard Island, an artificial island between Oakland and Alameda that houses several major Coast Guard commands.
Customs and Border Protection agents were staging on the island in preparation for a federal immigration crackdown ordered by the Trump adminstration, but then put on hold at the last minute.
During the protest, at least two demonstrators were taken into custody by the California Highway Patrol for obstruction, after repeatedly being told to clear the Coast Guard Island entrance to allow vehicles to leave the island.
A demonstrator is taken into custody by California Highway Patrol officer for their refusing orders during a federal immigration crackdown protest outside the entrance Coast Guard Island in Alameda, California on Oct. 23, 2025.
Those arrests came hours after President Donald Trump paused the deployment of federal agents to San Francisco, citing a call with the city’s mayor, Daniel Lurie ‒ but before the public was told of the change in plans.
The president has sent troops into a handful of Democratic-led cities across the country since June, including Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Portland, Oregon, and Memphis, Tennessee.
On second thought: Trump pauses deployment of federal agents to San Francisco. ‘OK, I’ll give you a chance.’
Protester calls U-Haul driver shot an ‘independent actor’
Kris Ness, who said he’d been at the Oct. 23 immigration protest throughout the day, described the U-Haul driver shot by the Coast Guard to KTVU-TV as an “independent actor” who wasn’t involved with the protest.
Ness said the driver showed up to the scene around 9:30 p.m., broke through a barrier, and “reversed toward the Coast Guard.”
Ness also told the TV station he saw the Coast Guard fire up to 50 rounds, and said that an “innocent bystander was struck.” Ness said he ran over to help the shooting victim before he was taken to the hospital.
“He was definitely bleeding, though,” Ness said.
Hundreds of demonstrators marched, chanted and held signs outside a US Coast Guard base in Alameda, California, on Oct. 23, 2025, as protesters rallied against a potential federal immigration crackdown in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Ness said the driver attempted to get away but was eventually arrested.
Ness said that the group of protesters he was with told the Coast Guard that they were peaceful and not connected with the driver, as the Oakland police and Alameda County sheriff’s deputies arrived to secure the scene.
“In fact, we tried to stop them,” Ness told the TV station. “It’s a really terrible picture for the rest of us, especially. You know, aside from the fact that he was a completely independent actor, he refused to talk to us as well. It was all around just really weird and dangerous and unfortunate.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 2 shot during immigration protest at California Coast Guard base
