An artillery shell fired as a part of the Marine Corps’ 250-year anniversary celebrations prematurely detonated over Interstate 5 in California Saturday, hanging a patrol automobile with shrapnel, in response to the California Highway Patrol.
No accidents had been reported from the incident, which came about in an space the place the highway patrol had stopped visitors in the course of the dwell hearth train at Camp Pendleton, the company stated in a press release Sunday.
The Marine Corps was alerted and canceled the firing of extra dwell ordnance over the highway.
“This was an unusual and concerning situation,” California Highway Patrol Border Division Chief Tony Coronado stated within the assertion. “It is highly uncommon for any live-fire or explosive training activity to occur over an active freeway. As a Marine myself, I have tremendous respect for our military partners, but my foremost responsibility is ensuring the safety of the people of California and the officers who protect them.”
The incident comes because the Trump administration and the state of California have clashed over a number of high-profile points, together with the deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles and congressional redistricting.
The Marine Corps stated live-fire coaching was carried out at Camp Pendleton year-round to keep up fight readiness and precision.
“We are aware of the report of a possible airborne detonation of a 155mm artillery round outside the designated impact area during the U.S. Marine Corps Amphibious Capabilities Demonstration,” spokesperson Capt. Gregory Dreibelbis stated in a press release to NCS on Sunday.
“The demonstration went through a rigorous safety evaluation, and deliberate layers of redundancy, to ensure the safety of fellow citizens,” he stated. “Following established safety protocols, firing was suspended. No injuries occurred and the demonstration concluded as scheduled.”
The Marine Corps is investigating the incident, Dreibelbis stated. Marines on the West Coast “are committed to our enduring and mutually beneficial relationship with the people of Southern California,” he stated. “Their safety and confidence is invaluable.”
Highway Patrol stated it filed an inner report with a suggestion to assessment the coordination between federal, state and native authorities across the occasion.
The Camp Pendleton demonstration, which the Marines referred to as the most important in a decade within the continental US, concerned fighter jets, helicopters, Navy vessels and dwell hearth from a towed howitzer.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom closed a section of Interstate 5 in Southern California forward of Saturday’s demonstration, citing “extreme life safety risk and distraction to drivers.”
“Firing live rounds over a busy highway isn’t just wrong — it’s dangerous,” Newsom, a Democrat who has frequently sparred with the Trump administration, stated in a press release.
Vice President JD Vance’s workplace disputed Newsom’s declare that the dwell rounds had been harmful, saying that the demonstration was “an established safe practice.”
“If Gavin Newsom wants to oppose the training exercises that ensure our Armed Forces are the deadliest and most lethal fighting force in the world, then he can go right ahead,” William Martin, Vance’s communications director, stated in a press release to NCS. “It would come as no surprise that he would stoop so low considering his pathetic track record of failure as governor.”
In remarks from Camp Pendleton, Vance — the primary Marine to function vp — spoke of his time within the army, saying, “I would not be here today, I would not be the vice president of the United States, I would not be the man I am today were it not for those four years that I served in the Marine Corps.”