A 155mm artillery bullet exploded early during a live-fire performance at the pendleton base, which held a ceremony to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the US Navy. The shrapnel hit many vehicles of the US Vice President's protection team JD Vance, but fortunately no one was injured, according to information on October 19 (US time).
The California Expressway Patrol said the bullet exploded in the air before falling into a contained area, causing many small pieces to fall onto patrol vehicles parked near the access point to the federal highway.
One officer said he heard a stone-like sound hitting the car, while the two others discovered a 5cm long bullet hooked to the hood, leaving a small groove. The authorities later seized many other pieces of firecrackers on the road.
At the time of the incident, the highway was closed under the order of California Governor Gavin Newsom. He said organizing live-fire near residential areas was risky, while criticizing the White House and the Vice President for not being risky with peoples lives just for unfortunate projects. Meanwhile, the US military confirmed that the drill was conducted according to a safe procedure and people could still move normally.
Tony Coronado, a California patrol police officer, described the incident as an unusual and worrying incident, stressing that there were few explosive uses near the highway under operation. Immediately after the incident, the drill was suspended to investigate the cause.
Lieutenant Colonel Lindsay Pirek, a spokesman for the unit stationed at pendleton, said the force was reviewing the entire process and committed to finding the root cause of the incident to learn from the experience of the next missions.
According to initial information, the bullet was fired from the White's Beach area, about 1km south of the highway. A Marines at the base said that conventional artillery training was usually held at the eastern training ground, which was much safer. Another soldier said the incident could have been due to an explosive error, but stressed that this was a very rare case.
