Suspect in Highway 1 shooting tied to other Bay Area gun crimes, Santa Cruz Sheriff’s Office says

Detectives have arrested a suspect involved in an apparently random shooting on Highway 1 near Aptos last May that injured a man and a 3-year-old child. Investigators said they also connected the suspect to a number of other Bay Area shootings.

The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office said Raphael Shakur Abduh-Salam, 33, of Hayward is currently in a Contra Costa County jail on a parole hold  — a detention of a person who is suspected of a parole violation — and will be booked into a Santa Cruz County jail later this month. He is charged with attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, shooting into an occupied vehicle, felon in possession of a firearm, and felon in possession of ammunition.

Investigators say a suspect was driving erratically south on Highway 1 around 8:37 p.m. on May 26, 2023, when his car collided with a black Lexus carrying five family members. Both cars left the freeway at the Freedom Boulevard exit. There, the suspect turned his car around and fired 15 rounds at the victim’s car before fleeing, hitting the man and the child with gunfire and shrapnel. Both victims were treated in hospital and released.

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Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Ian Patrick told a news conference Thursday morning that Abduh-Salam had no link to the victim and the motive behind the shooting is unknown.

“I can’t get into Mr. Abduh-Salam’s head,” he said. “But all associated vehicles were traveling within the law, so it’s not known why the shooting occurred.” Undersheriff Chris Clark added that it was a “miracle” that no one was killed.

Patrick said that, though no witnesses were able to see the license plate of the suspect’s car, forensic investigators collected spent casings and cartridges from the handgun used in the shooting. In collaboration with the California Department of Justice, investigators determined that the gun had also been used in other shootings throughout the Bay Area. Patrick said those instances took place “over the last couple of years.”

Patrick said the sheriff’s office partnered with Santa Cruz County Auto Theft Reduction & Enforcement Team — a multi-agency auto theft task force — to locate the suspect’s vehicle. Eventually, they located an Acura MDX in the Hayward area with matching damage to its rear end. Further surveillance allowed investigators to determine that the vehicle was in Abduh-Salam’s possession.

County investigators and California Highway Patrol officers served a search warrant at Abduh-Salam’s Hayward residence Nov. 14, where they found a Glock handgun with high capacity magazines, said Patrick. Ballistic testing through the state Department of Justice determined that the gun matched the bullet casings from the scene. Patrick said that all of this information led to Abduh-Salam’s arrest warrant, issued on Dec. 27.

Patrick said the sheriff’s office hopes that Abduh-Salam will be arraigned by the end of January.

The case is a joint investigation between the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office and the California Highway Patrol, with assistance from the Santa Cruz County Anti-Crime Team, the local district attorney’s Office, the California Department of Corrections and Rehab, Hayward Police Department, the Serological Research Institute and the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office.

“This case highlights the tenacity of our detectives, forensic division, our relationships with CHP, the Santa Cruz County Auto Theft Task Force and our partners at the district attorney’s office,” Clark said. 

Video: Highway 1 shooting

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