“Coast Guard personnel issued multiple verbal commands to stop the vehicle, the driver failed to comply and proceeded to put the vehicle in reverse,” the Coast Guard said in a statement. “When the vehicle’s actions posed a direct threat to the safety of Coast Guard and security personnel, law enforcement officers discharged several rounds of live fire.”
The Coast Guard said none of its personnel were injured during the incident.
The FBI is leading an investigation into the shooting, and agents were on the scene early Friday, with a block cordoned off in each direction surrounding the intersection near the bridge at Embarcadero and Dennison Street.
“At the request of the U.S. Coast Guard, the FBI is investigating a shooting incident that occurred around 10 p.m. last night on Coast Guard Island in Alameda,” spokesperson Cameron Polan told KQED. “At this time, the incident appears to be isolated, and there is no known current threat to the public.”
A group of about a dozen protesters were allowed back to the intersection after agents departed around 9 a.m.
A peaceful crowd of around 50 people gathered throughout the morning, though at one point officers fired what appeared to be pepper balls at a woman trying to drive up to the base.
Rose Strauser, who was among the activists, told KQED that the woman was not affiliated with the protest, but was trying to access a health center on the base to get medication.
“I don’t think she got hit because she was in her car, but she’s obviously really shaken up,” Strauser said.
KQED’s Beth LaBerge and Nastia Voynovskaya contributed to this report.