In The News
Trucker wounded by intruder recovering nicely but no longer able to drive
OAKLAND, Calif. — It was to be a routine type run professional truck driver Lloyd Jerry Matson had made hundreds, probably thousands or maybe even tens of thousands of times during his 43-year career, which is now over, the result of an attempted robbery and shooting here last month.
On this occasion, Matson picked up a generator at Compton, California, and was headed in his 2012 International ProStar to the O.co Coliseum in Oakland, a distance of some 380 miles.
The O.co Coliseum, formerly known as the Oakland Alameda Coliseum, is home of the Oakland Athletics for Major League Baseball and the Oakland Raiders of the National Football League.
It was a little after lunchtime on December 15 when Matson, 72, a resident of Auburn, Indiana, and an owner-operator leased to Trailer Transit of Porter, Indiana, headed north on Interstate 5 with his load, which was scheduled to be delivered the next day.
After stopping for supper, Matson arrived at his destination about 8 p.m. with the intention of parking at the coliseum, something he and other Transit Trailer drivers had done numerous times before.
"I went to the coliseum and tried to get them to let me park, but the attendant said I couldn't park there until 1 or 2 o'clock the next morning because there was an event going on at Oracle Arena, which is adjacent to the coliseum," Matson told The Trucker.
The denial came regardless of the fact that there was space and that drivers had parked there before during an event.
The Oakland-Alameda Coliseum Authority, which manages both venues, has not responded to a request by The Trucker to determine why — based on precedent — Matson was not allowed to park at the coliseum.
"That lot is huge, there's always at leave space you can slip into," Matson said.
Matson asked the attendant where he could park, and the attendant told him to try an area slightly north and west of the coliseum.
"I went there and all I saw was No Parking signs," Matson related. "I saw an officer writing tickets and asked if there was anywhere around I could park and she pointed to the area where I wound up getting shot," Matson said.
The "area" was in the 6600 block of Oakport Street.
Google maps show the area to be extremely secluded with no lighting and no buildings.
"It was definitely dark in that area," Matson said.
But he parked there as directed, went to bed and two hours later was awakened by someone banging on the window of his tractor.
"He [the assailant] jumped on the side of the truck and started hitting the glass with the gun," Matson said. "I was pretty groggy, as I had been asleep."
Instinctively, he lunged at the would-be intruder and tried to push him off the side of the truck.
But the person managed to get jod gun, later determined to be a .45-caliber weapon, through the broken window and fired once, hitting Matson in the stomach to the right and just below his naval.
"He pulled the trigger and fell off the side of the truck, and I fell back into the bunk," Matson said.
Now bleeding heavily, Matson found his cell phone and dialed 911.
The pain, he said, was so excruciating that he told the dispatcher that he was dying.
"I said, 'I'm not going to make it through this; the lights are going off,' " Matson told the Oakland Tribune. "She yelled something that made me snap to attention, and then I heard the sirens."
Matson was rushed to Highland Hospital about five miles away where he immediately underwent surgery.
There have been several other surgeries since, and Matson says he's no longer able to drive a truck.
"He is doing much better, praise God!" Christy Matson, the victim's daughter told The Trucker Monday. "He is being moved sometime early this week to St. Francis Memorial in San Francisco where he will receive much better care. They have hyperbaric oxygen therapy, which will help heal his wounds quicker and a wonderful therapy program that will get him up and around sooner. He is still looking at a few more weeks of hospitalization. He is in good spirits, but tires easily."
Matson was one of six people wounded in shootings in Oakland within a 90-minute time span the night of December 15.
Matson and his family are proponents of truckers being allowed to carry guns.
"We should be allowed to carry guns in our truck to protect ourselves," Matson said from his hospital bed.
My family is pro-gun carrying, especially since both my dad and little brother are truck drivers," Christy said. "Truck drivers are easy targets and the criminals know this. If my dad had a gun with him on this night, maybe the thug would be in jail now."
To make a donation to the Matson family to help with medical expenses, go to gofund.me/evh7sfdr.
The Trucker staff can be reached to comment on this article at [email protected].