SEATTLE — The search continues for the driver who shot another motorist in the face on northbound Interstate 5 near Kent on Wednesday.
According to Harborview Medical Center, the male victim is in serious condition in the Intensive Care Unit.
The Washington State Patrol says the 911 calls started coming in around 4:30 p.m. In the middle of the evening commute, northbound lanes near Kent were shut down as investigators moved in to investigate the suspected road rage shooting. Detectives said the driver who was shot crash. The shooter sped away.
"We are potentially looking for a white Audi,” Trooper Chelsea DeHart said.
The shooting on Wednesday is the latest in a growing list of road rage investigations around the state. According to the Washington State Patrol, cases of road rage are on the rise.
In King and Pierce counties, cases of shots fired have been climbing over the past five years. That has J.C. Fawcett's attention.
"As a company we teach over 5,000 teens a year,” said Fawcett, who is the president of Defensive Driving School in Washington.
"Give yourself plenty of distance. Don't retaliate. Don't do a brake check,” said Fawcett. "In many cases, if you have got someone irritated, just don't respond. Nothing good is going to happen by trying to escalate or to try and prove you are in the right."
Around the region families are feeling the impact from recent suspected road rage cases.
"I just wish people would slow down and care a little more,” said Stephanie Smith, the mother of Raelyn Davis.
Davis was driving from Leavenworth, heading home to Everett, when she was shot and killed on US 2 in October.
The following month, in Renton, 9-year-old Isaiah Johns was traveling with his family when he was shot in the chest and face. On Wednesday, his mother said that Isaiah is doing "unbelievably amazing,” but he still has surgery ahead to take out the metal bar holding his jaw together.
Those are just two examples of the tragic toll violence is having on Washington’s roads.
"You don't know who you're dealing with in another car, so, it's best not to try and figure out how dangerous that person may or may not be,” said Fawcett.
Anyone with information about the shooting on I-5 near Kent on Wednesday is asked to contact WSP Detective Tim Hanson at tim.hanson@wsp.wa.gov.