Rare deadly shooting in Orinda tied to road rage
ORINDA, Calif. - A man was shot and killed Thursday in Orinda in what neighbors say was a case of road rage.
The shooting happened in the area of Las Vegas Road and La Espiral north of Highway 24.
Orinda is an affluent city of 19,000 adjacent to Oakland and homicides are very rare.
Neighbors tell KTVU there was some kind of rolling dispute that ended in a confrontation involving the drivers of a Toyota 4Runner and a Tesla.
"I heard a loud bang and my first thought was, ‘OK, gun’ and then I thought, ‘No way.' I thought maybe it was just like a tire blew," said Shawn James, who lives nearby.
The Tesla is owned by a 72-year-old man who lives nearby. KTVU has learned the Tesla driver called police, saying he shot the Toyota driver in self-defense after the man got out of his SUV and punched him.
Police would not discuss what led up to the shooting. But officers detained the 72-year-old man and recovered the gun.
The victim also lived in Orinda, police said.
Throughout the day, there was a large police presence, with Lafayette, Moraga and Orinda officers all responding, as well as investigators from the Contra Costa County sheriff’s office, which provides police services in Orinda.
Crime scene investigators and detectives spent hours combing the scene for evidence.
"In my head, I'm asking the question, what would it take for somebody to get that upset to shoot somebody," James said.
KTVU legal analyst Michael Cardoza said investigators will have to carefully weigh the shooter's claim of self-defense.
"The self defense one uses has to be proportionate to the attack," Cardoza said.
"These cases are factually driven. A person who is attacked has to feel an imminent fear that his life is going to be taken or he's gong to suffer great bodily injury," Cardoza said.
Orinda was also the site of a mass shooting on Halloween in 2019, where five people were killed and four other injured. The house had been rented on Airbnb.
Henry Lee is a KTVU crime reporter. E-mail Henry at Henry.Lee@fox.com and follow him on Twitter @henrykleeKTVU and www.facebook.com/henrykleefan