A 41-year-old Richmond man was sentenced to prison Friday in connection with an October 2024 freeway shooting incident in Vallejo.
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Mohammad Ahmed Rafiq Ali pleaded no contest charges of assault with a firearm with an enhancement for person use of a gun and a charge of infliction great bodily injury. In exchange a charge of attempted murder was dismissed with a Harvey Waiver, an agreement in which a defendant stipulates that a judge can consider the facts of a dismissed charge during sentencing.
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Solano County Superior Court Judge Bryan J. Kim sentenced Ali to 6 years in prison with credit for 611 days already served and 92 days of good time credit.
As previously reported, prosecutors said evidence indicated Ali “mistook” the victim for someone who had burglarized his business, a Valero station, and that the victim had suffered five gunshot wounds.
Prosecutors also said evidence from a Flock camera — a license-plate-reader camera — placed Ali at the shooting scene, saying it showed the defendant “pull up alongside” the victim’s vehicle.
The defense claimed the allegations were “completely out of character.”
Court records show that officers assigned to the CHP’s Solano area office in Vallejo were dispatched at about 5:30 a.m. Oct. 5, 2024, on a report of a shooting that occurred on eastbound Interstate 780 east of Glen Cove Road.
Following the shooting, the driver of the victim’s vehicle pulled to the right shoulder of the freeway and called 911, according to information posted on a CHP-Solano social media page.
Before officers arrived on scene, the victim was transported to a local hospital for treatment of gunshot wounds and was later released, according to information provided by an official in the CHP’s Golden Gate Division in Vallejo.
Detectives assigned to the division responded to the scene and assumed the lead role in the investigation. During their investigation, they described the suspect vehicle, which was then located using a Flock camera in the area. With that information, detectives identified Ali as the primary suspect.
At approximately 5 p.m., detectives, with the help of the division’s Warrant Service Team, found Ali at his home in Richmond, in the 600 block of South 37th Street, and took him into custody without incident.
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