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Driver hit in road-rage shooting on I-5, pregnant wife next to him

The bullet narrowly missed the driver's pregnant wife after going through his leg.
Road rage victim tells his story.

The Washington State Patrol needs the public's help in finding the gunman who shot another driver in a road rage incident on Interstate 5 Wednesday morning.

29-year-old Mattathias Israel was driving his pregnant wife to work.

"I was in disbelief, to be honest, it was a scary moment," he said.

Israel was driving northbound on Interstate 5 near Boeing Field when a man in a Toyota with tinted windows came up fast behind him.

"He starts to speed up to get past me but there is a car in front of him. and I'm doing 67 so I'm not going that slow," Israel said. "So now he's pissed off because he can't jump in front of me so he darts over two lanes."

Israel admits he had a back and forth with the aggressive driver. Then right at the Michigan exit, the car pulled up next to him, and the driver fired two shots into his car.

"I was staring at my wife. She was like, 'Are you okay? Are you okay?' I could hear her but I could not respond," Israel said. "...and I snap out of it. I said I think I got shot."

Washington State Patrol seeks witnesses to a road rage shooting on Interstate 5 in Seattle on Wednesday.

The bullet that hit him went through the driver side door, into the driver side seat, up into his upper thigh before exiting at the inside of his left leg.

His pregnant wife was sitting just inches away in the passenger seat.

Washington State Patrol seeks witnesses to a road rage shooting on Interstate 5 in Seattle on Wednesday.

The expectant father can't help but think about his unborn child, and how that act of violence could have had a devastating result.

"It's a senseless act, not just because my pregnant wife is in there," he said. "You don't know. There is no reason to shoot at anybody over something in traffic."

WSP is looking for a late model, dark grey or teal Toyota passenger car, possibly a Prius. It had tinted windows and one or two Seahawks stickers on the right-hand corner panel of the car.

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