A recently retired San Jose Police Department captain who served the city for a quarter of a century died over the weekend after a wrong-way driver hit his truck on Interstate 5 near Chico, a wreck that killed four others including a child and a pregnant woman, according to authorities.
The captain, Randall “Randy” Schriefer, was driving a Dodge Ram pickup truck towing a travel trailer north on I-5 near Corning in Tehama County — about 30 miles northwest of Chico, where he attended college — when the driver of a southbound Infiniti sedan crossed the center divider and hit Schriefer’s vehicle head-on, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Schriefer, a 52-year-old Morgan Hill resident, died at the scene, the CHP confirmed Monday. Schriefer’s wife Kelly, 48, was riding in the truck and was seriously injured in the crash; she was airlifted to a local hospital, CHP said.
In a statement posted on social media, the San Jose Police Department said Schriefer “served our city with distinction and unwavering commitment for 23 years” and that his death has left “a void that will be felt by all those who knew and loved him.”
“Let us always remember and honor his life, his legacy, and the indelible impact he made on our community,” the post reads. “We are completely heartbroken by the news and will forever cherish his memory.”
All four occupants of the Infiniti, who hailed from San Diego, were not wearing seat belts and were thrown from their car, according to the CHP. They all died at the scene. The Infiniti driver was listed as a 46-year-old man, and the passengers included a 47-year-old man, a 36-year-old woman and an 8-year-old girl.
Officer Jason Thinnes, a spokesperson for the CHP Red Bluff area field office and a member of the agency’s accident investigation team, said the woman who died was seven months pregnant; her unborn child did not survive the crash.
Thinnes said that an explanation for why the Infiniti driver traveled into oncoming traffic remains under investigation, adding that multiple eyewitnesses are being interviewed.
Schriefer joined SJPD in 1999 after 3½ years working as a CHP officer in Los Angeles and San Jose, according to his LinkedIn page.
As a San Jose officer and supervisor, he worked patrol, investigated and oversaw investigations into robberies, child exploitation and human trafficking cases, headed policing at the airport, and commanded the internal affairs division. As a captain, he was a patrol supervisor, headed the overall investigations bureau, and at the time of his August 2022 retirement was overseeing field training and crime prevention programs at the department.
At the time of his death, he was working as an emergency services manager for Amazon. Schriefer was an active Chico State University alum, serving as a board member for the school’s alumni association. He earned a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology in 1994, and for about a year and a half coinciding with the start of his law-enforcement career he worked as an orthopedic consultant.
Mark Hendry, president of the Chico State Alumni Association, said he was shocked to hear the news about Schriefer, who had been on the board for over a year and attended quarterly meetings.
“It’s sad that he’s gone so soon,” Hendry said. “He was a great asset to the board and brought a lot of good ideas to the meetings so it’s very sad to hear what happened.”
Chico Enterprise-Record staff writer Jake Hutchinson contributed to this report.
