All northbound lanes of Highway 101 near San Carlos were shut down yesterday after shots were fired close to the Holly Street exit, leaving one person with a minor hand injury and stranding commuters for hours during the peak evening drive. California Highway Patrol officers were called to the scene around 5 PM, and investigators have not said when the highway is expected to reopen.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, CHP reported shots fired on the northbound 101 in the Redwood City area before shutting down the full northbound corridor near San Carlos. Police said the shooting happened around 5 PM near Holly Street, and CHP confirmed that the occupants of the targeted vehicle were not hit by gunfire, even though one person suffered a minor hand injury. Police are investigating the incident, though no arrests or suspect descriptions have been released.
Separately, per PressBee, CHP officers were dispatched at approximately 5:01 PM yesterday to the same stretch of northbound 101 near Holly Street, a detail that helps pin down just how quickly the closure followed the initial report. That timeline also underscores why the target vehicle's cabin appears not to have been penetrated by bullets, even as the hand injury was reported.
A Commute-Hour Corridor Grinds to a Halt
The closure hit at a particularly bad time for traffic. Highway 101 through San Mateo County is one of the Peninsula's heaviest travel corridors, functioning as the main highway link between Silicon Valley employers and San Francisco, according to a report from C/CAG of San Mateo County. Shutting down all northbound lanes during a Sunday evening commute all but guaranteed severe regional backups as drivers were forced onto surface streets.
The Holly Street interchange itself has seen significant recent investment — the City of San Carlos previously completed a $25.8 million reconstruction of the interchange that reworked highway ramps and added a 12-foot-wide multi-use pedestrian overcrossing. The area also borders San Carlos's East Side Innovation District, a commercial zone that includes life science development projects such as a six-story building at 405 Industrial Road, per city planning documents.
Not the First Violence Near This Overpass
Yesterday's shooting is not the first violent incident tied to this stretch of highway. In September 2012, a gang-related shooting occurred along Highway 101 near the Holly Street exit in the Belmont–San Carlos border area, with suspects firing at least a dozen rounds into a rival vehicle, according to KQED. And in June 2023, San Mateo County Sheriff's deputies responded to a violent assault directly on the Holly Street overpass after a victim was struck in the head with a pickaxe, as reported by SFGate at the time.
The stretch of 101 running through San Carlos and Redwood City falls under the jurisdiction of the CHP Redwood City Area office, part of the CHP Golden Gate Division, which covers nine Bay Area counties. Investigators in that division have handled a string of other freeway gunfire cases across the region recently, including a teen shot on I-580 near San Leandro earlier this year and a shooting on the Bay Bridge that injured one person and prompted a CHP Special Investigations Unit response last October.
Cameras and Felony Charges Await Any Suspects
Bay Area freeways are increasingly monitored by automated license plate readers, part of a state-funded program Governor Gavin Newsom announced in April 2024, contracting with Flock Safety to install 480 cameras across Bay Area roadways to help CHP track vehicles linked to roadway violence. Whether any camera near the Holly Street interchange captured the suspect vehicle entering or exiting remains an open question, and CHP has not said whether the shooting stemmed from a targeted dispute or a road-rage encounter.
Whoever is eventually identified in the shooting faces serious legal exposure. Under California Penal Code Section 246, maliciously and willfully discharging a firearm at an occupied motor vehicle is a felony punishable by three, five, or seven years in state prison and fines up to $10,000, according to the Shouse California Law Group. A conviction under that statute also counts as a serious felony and a strike under California's Three Strikes law, which can double prison sentences for any future felony conviction.
For now, the shooting remains under investigation, and CHP has not released additional details about a suspect or motive. Commuters heading north through San Carlos on Highway 101 should expect the possibility of continued delays until officers finish processing the scene near Holly Street.
