SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — California politicians are demanding answers from the federal government on live fire shooting that prompted a full closure of the 5 freeway in San Diego County.
Twenty six California House Representatives and the state’s two U.S. Senators, Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, have sent a letter to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, asking what exactly happened, and what led up to the live firing during the Marine Corps’ 250th Birthday celebration on October 18, which Vice President JD Vance and Hegseth were attending.
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“Who is responsible for making the call to fire live ammunition over the freeway?” U.S. Representative Mike Levin is asking. He helped lead the letter to Hegseth and has asked for a response by October 29.
Some of the 13 questions they want answers to include:
“How did the USMC and relevant components prepare for this event? When did the
USMC and relevant components begin preparing for this event?
Please describe the process the USMC conducted under the “detailed risk assessment.”
Who directed the USMC to conduct the artillery demonstration over Interstate 5? Who
made the final decision that the live fire demonstration was considered to be safe? When
was this decision made?
Who made the final decision that the federal government would not require the closure of
Interstate 5?
What caused the round to detonate prematurely? Are there any plans to update safety
protocol to prevent future incidents from occurring?”
Just days before the event, the Marine Corps had said in a news release that “no public highways or transportation routes will be closed.” But the morning of the celebration, California Governor Gavin Newsom and California Highway Patrol announced the closure of the 5 freeway for several hours that Saturday, over safety concerns that live fire was being shot over the active freeway.
“You can’t fire over the 5,” Levin said.
“When you’re lobbying these missiles basically across a freeway, that’s a very bad idea,” U.S. Representative Juan Vargas said. “To our understanding it’s never been done before, they don’t have any permission to do it, they did it to show off.”
“What happened I think was really disconcerting,” Peters said. “I was really concerned there wasn’t any coordination between the state and the federal government about what was going on.”
“Just the idea about not communicating with the state about what we’re planning to do leaving us in a position to guess if we should close a highway its really dysfunctional,” Peters added. “I think the governor made the prudent decision to close the highway and they made fun of it. They said he was overreacting, but he was not overreacting because one of the shells hit a CHP car.”
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CHP officials said that metal shrapnel from an explosive ordnance that was fired over Interstate 5 hit a California Highway Patrol cruiser.
CHP Border Division Chief Tony Coronado called the incident “unusual” and a “concerning situation.”
“It is highly uncommon for any live-fire or explosive training activity to occur over an active freeway. As a Marine myself, I have tremendous respect for our military partners, but my foremost responsibility is ensuring the safety of the people of California and the officers who protect them,” Coronado said.
He said that the cruiser was hit while stopping traffic, and they immediately told the Marines, who then canceled firing additional rounds over the 5 freeway.
“If they want to do live fire, they should be able to do live fire. But lets plan this thing out, let’s just not do it haphazardly,” Vargas said.
“I think the Marine Corps, at least the folks on base, were overruled by the administration — whether it was by Vance, Hegseth, or somebody that works for them, I don’t know and that’s why we need to find out,” Levin said.
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“I think it will be one of those things where we will not drop it and I hope that at some point in the next months and years I’ll have subpoena power,” Levin said, referring to not having the majority, and he said once he has the power he will be “demanding the answers rather than requesting them.”
Read the full signed letter sent to Hegseth below:
hegseth_letter_re_i-5_closuresDownload
We have reached out to Marine Corps officials with a list of questions as well, they have not yet responded to the questions, but confirmed there’s an active investigation.
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