Newly released video of a California Highway Patrol traffic stop shows how dangerously close drivers on Interstate 5 in Tehama County came to being injured by gunshots.
The video provided exclusively to KCRA shows the stop, which happened on Oct. 15, 2023.
According to a report from CHP, the incident started when a CHP officer went to check on what he thought was a disabled vehicle.
The white Honda was parked on the shoulder of I-5.
It had dark tint on the windows and a sunshade covering the front windshield.
Dash camera video from the officer’s patrol car shows the 10-year veteran officer approach the vehicle on the passenger side.
“Hey, can you roll down your window?” the officer is heard saying to the man inside the vehicle.
However, the driver refused to roll down the window. He gets out of the vehicle instead and shoots the officer.
The ordeal happened quickly. The officer was shot at just one minute after the officer stopped to check on the driver.
Then two minutes later, the suspect begins shooting at the officer again, striking him, before stealing the patrol car.
Dash camera video from the patrol car shows the suspect, later identified as Joseph Michael Pate swerving in and out of traffic.
At one point he veered in front of an 18-wheeler, causing it to flip on its side. (See that moment in the video below.)
