The victim said he blacked out behind the wheel, struck two vehicles and was shot in the leg after the second collision.
OAKLAND, CA — An Oakland man said a seizure behind the wheel on March 20 led to two crashes in East Oakland before another driver pulled a gun, stole his phone and wallet, and shot him in the leg near 78th Avenue and Plymouth Street.
What began as a medical crisis has become a criminal investigation and a public test of how quickly violence can follow confusion on an Oakland street. The man, Andre Buchanan, remains in recovery after surgery and a blood transfusion, according to his family. His account has drawn attention because the shooting came after a crash he says happened while he was in and out of consciousness. Police had not publicly announced an arrest by late March, leaving basic questions about the gunman, the sequence of events and possible evidence still unresolved.
Buchanan said he was driving to a store on Friday, March 20, when he suffered a seizure and struck a parked car. He told television reporters that he was still disoriented and drove on before suffering another seizure a short distance away. The second crash happened near 78th Avenue and Plymouth Street, a residential stretch in East Oakland. Buchanan said the other vehicle had someone inside. “Once I hit his vehicle, he flashed his gun at me,” Buchanan said from his hospital bed in an interview days later. He said the encounter moved quickly and felt dreamlike. After the collision, he said, the other driver got out, confronted him at gunpoint, took his phone and wallet, and then shot him in the leg before leaving. Buchanan said he remembers screaming for help, while officers later told him he had been drifting in and out of consciousness when police and first responders arrived.
The account from Buchanan and his wife, Essence Washington, fills in much of what is publicly known so far, but several important details remain unclear. It is not clear whether the suspect fled on foot or in a vehicle, whether surveillance cameras captured the shooting, or whether investigators have released a suspect description to the public. It also is not publicly known whether detectives have identified the firearm used in the attack or whether anyone else saw the shooting happen. Buchanan said he had been living with epilepsy for about two years before the crash. Washington said she first heard from a friend that her husband had been involved in a wreck. She said it then took about three hours to learn he had been taken to a hospital. “Once I arrived at the hospital, that’s when I learned he was shot,” Washington said. Since then, Buchanan has undergone surgery on his leg and received a blood transfusion. His family has said he is expected to recover, though the process is likely to take weeks and could affect his ability to work and walk normally in the near term.
The location matters to the story because it sits in a part of East Oakland that has long been shaped by traffic collisions, gun violence and robbery concerns, even as city leaders have pointed to broader signs of improvement in crime data. Oakland police said in a mid-2025 public update that violent crime in the city had fallen during the first half of last year, and later public reporting on year-end police data said robberies with firearms dropped sharply in 2025. But city officials have also cautioned that improvements in overall numbers do not prevent the sudden, highly personal cases that keep fear high in many neighborhoods. Oakland’s crime data system tracks robbery and assault patterns by area, and residents have repeatedly told city officials that shootings and street robberies remain among their biggest worries. Buchanan’s case underscores that tension. It did not begin as a dispute, a planned meeting or a robbery attempt. By his account, it began with a health episode and turned violent in the moments after a collision, when the person in the other car chose confrontation over aid.
The legal path ahead depends on what investigators can confirm. If Buchanan’s account is borne out, the case could involve armed robbery, assault with a firearm, shooting from close range and additional weapons allegations under California law. Detectives would also be expected to sort out the crash sequence separately from the shooting, including whether Buchanan’s medical condition affected how the collisions are classified. That distinction matters because the same event contains two very different tracks: a driver suffering a medical emergency and a second person allegedly taking advantage of that vulnerability. Police typically review 911 calls, body-camera footage, shell casings, witness interviews, hospital records and any nearby camera video in cases like this. It is not publicly known whether investigators have asked for outside video from homes or businesses near 78th Avenue and Plymouth Street. It also has not been publicly stated whether Buchanan was legally cleared to drive despite his epilepsy or whether that question is part of the inquiry. By late March, the next visible milestone was likely to be any police update on a suspect description, arrest or request for public help.
The human toll has come through most clearly in the voices around Buchanan’s hospital bed. Washington described the days after the shooting as full of fear and uncertainty. “I’ve been crying. This is the first day I haven’t cried at all,” she said in one interview. Buchanan, still piecing together parts of the episode, said the speed of the attack left him struggling to process it. He said he did not initially realize how badly he had been hurt. The family later set up an online fundraiser to help with medical bills and lost income as he recovers. That public appeal added another layer to a story already defined by vulnerability: a man dealing with epilepsy, then surgery, then the loss of his wallet, phone and car use after a shooting that followed a crash. For neighbors and onlookers, the case has stood out not only because of its violence, but because it reversed the basic expectation that a crash scene brings help, insurance information and emergency care, not an armed robbery. In Buchanan’s telling, the minutes after he lost control of the car were the minutes in which he needed help most and instead became the target of a crime.
As of Friday, March 28, Buchanan was still recovering from his injuries, and no public arrest had been announced in the shooting and robbery. The next key development is expected to be any update from Oakland police on the suspect, evidence gathered near the crash scene, and whether charges will be filed.
Author note: Last updated March 28, 2026.