‘Heard a pop’: Driver whose SUV was shot twice, his two young children, wife inside

TUKWILA, Wash. — Troopers are continuing to investigate a string of highway shootings, with at least seven cars hit, on I-5 Monday night. As of Tuesday afternoon, at least two victims were in critical condition.

A South Seattle man was caught up in the middle of all this. He showed just how close those shots came to possibly killing his wife and kids.

Scarily close. He said he thinks the man in custody shot at him because three shootings happened within a half of each other. His was just after 8:30 Monday night.

His family was headed home, driving northbound on I-5 near the MLK Jr. Way exit when someone opened fire.

“And immediately I heard the windshield and I heard a pop,” the man said.

That is the moment this man’s Labor Day forever changed.

“And the minute I heard the pop,” he said, “I thought it was just the windshield.”

He believed his SUV had been struck by a rock, but upon stopping and getting out, he realized it was something much larger.

“Yeah, when I pulled over and I realized it wasn’t a rock,” he said. “It was bullets. Bullets had hit.”

According to the State Patrol, his family’s SUV was the second one hit by someone shooting cars on I-5 between the I-90 interchange in King County into Pierce County near Fife.

Three victims identified the shooter as someone driving a white Volvo. That vehicle was traced to 44-year-old Eric Jerome Perkins who lives in Fircrest.

Did the South Seattle man duck? “Yeah, yeah,” he said. “But you could only duck so much because you’re driving 65, 70 miles an hour.”

But this victim, who asked not to reveal his name, said he never saw the driver.

But whoever shot at his family could have taken three precious lives. His wife was sitting in the front passenger seat.

“You can see how close it was to my wife,” he said. “My wife is sitting there. And you can see how close it was.”

And his two young children, a four-year-old boy and one-year-old girl, were sitting in their car seats in the back.

“We tried to comfort them,” he said. “And they were just like, ‘Oh, it’s a rock. It’s a rock!” It’s a ghost. We told them ‘it’s a ghost that threw the rock,’ so.”

He said they weren’t hurt. But his wife had to see a specialist to remove glass from her eye. They don’t know yet if her vision will be affected.

WSP was able to retrieve a bullet casing. So, that could help determine if the man in custody shot at his family, too.

He said it is to prevent a recurrence, lawmakers need to stiffen the laws to hold those, who do this very dangerous thing, accountable.

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