A routine fender-bender near Bay Road and Hedge Road in Menlo Park turned into gunfire Thursday night, leaving a 47-year-old San Mateo man hospitalized with a gunshot wound after he stepped out of his car to swap insurance information. Three juveniles between 8 and 14 years old were riding in his vehicle at the time and were not hurt, police said.
Menlo Park police said officers responded to the area at about 8:39 p.m. Thursday after receiving multiple reports of gunshots, according to inmenlo.com. Investigators believe the shooting followed a non-injury vehicle collision between the two cars moments earlier. “When the victim exited his vehicle to exchange information, one of the occupants of the suspect vehicle opened fire, striking the victim,” police said, according to the same report.
Victim Rushed to Hospital, Kids Spared
Officers who arrived at the scene found the man suffering from a gunshot wound and immediately began rendering medical aid, the outlet reported, until Menlo Park Fire personnel took over treatment. He was then transported to the hospital with injuries described as non-life-threatening. The Palo Alto Daily Post identified the victim as a San Mateo resident.
The three children in his car, ranging in age from 8 to 14, were not injured, inmenlo.com's report noted. Police have not released further details about the juveniles' relationship to the victim.
Suspect Car Still Missing
The shooter's vehicle was described only as a small white car that fled the scene in an unknown direction immediately after the gunfire, per the same account. As of the latest update, that car had not been located and remained outstanding, with no suspect identified publicly.
The shooting adds to a string of gunfire incidents that have periodically rattled Menlo Park in recent years. In 2022, a targeted drive-by shooting wounded a man and left his car riddled with bullets, according to CBS San Francisco, while a separate 2022 shooting captured on a neighbor's video also saw two people arrested at the scene on outstanding warrants; those arrests were not directly related to the shooting, as reported by The Almanac.
Roadside confrontations escalating to gunfire are not unique to the Peninsula. In Southern California, a motorcyclist and a sedan driver fatally shot each other following a freeway collision in 2024, as reported by ABC30. A 2026 road-rage shooting on State Route 52 left a woman hospitalized before an arrest was made, according to NBC 7 San Diego.
The investigation into Thursday's shooting remains ongoing, with no arrests announced and the suspect vehicle still at large.
