SAN DIEGO : Sailor Gets 8 Years in Freeway Shooting
A sailor who fired shots at other sailors on Interstate 5 after a bar argument was sentenced Wednesday to eight years in state prison.
The incident occurred Dec. 21 when Clarence Wesley Hancock, 20, a crew member of the destroyer tender Cape Cod, fired shots at four sailors in a taxi on Interstate 5 near Pacific Highway.
Though all shots missed, Hancock, of Chula Vista, was charged with two counts of attempted murder. He later pleaded guilty to two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and firing upon an occupied vehicle.
San Diego Superior Court Judge Charles Hayes also fined Hancock $100, and Hancock was handcuffed and taken into custody after sentencing.
By coincidence, two vice officers in an undercover car drove by as the shootings occurred. The officers followed Hancock’s car and exchanged shots in a Balboa Park parking lot.
Hancock was wounded in the leg by police and escaped, but was arrested when he checked into a hospital for treatment. His attorney said this was his first criminal conviction.
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