Authorities learned Wednesday morning that a second vehicle was damaged by gunfire on a stretch of state Route 163 in Kearny Mesa, about the same time a college student was shot while she was driving to school.
The 42-year-old man alerted the California Highway Patrol Wednesday morning to the additional shooting in the southbound lanes of the freeway, near state Route 52, according to a statement issued by the CHP. The Rancho Bernardo resident was not injured.
About 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, roughly 20 minutes after the man's black 2010 Volkswagen Passat was pierced by a bullet, a 21-year-old University of San Diego student called her mother and told her she was having trouble breathing, USD spokeswoman Pamela Gray Payton said.
The victim's mother then made a 911 call, and medics met the wounded Escondido woman near the university in Linda Vista. She was taken to a hospital for emergency surgery for a wound to her rib cage.
The victim, whose name has not been released, told authorities she was driving in the far left-hand southbound lane of the freeway, near Balboa Avenue, when she felt a pain in her right side, said Det. Gary Hassen, a San Diego police spokesman. A bullet hole was later found in the passenger-side door of her Toyota Matrix.
Investigators determined that a hole in a rear window frame on the man's car also was caused by a small-caliber bullet, according to the CHP. Authorities believe the same unidentified shooter is responsible for both shootings.
Following the initial report of gunfire on the freeway, police closed a section to search it and found about 10 bullet casings between Clairemont Mesa Boulevard and Balboa Avenue.
