Woman's car windows shot out before I-5 chase

A woman may have saved her life and the lives of many others Friday when she called to report a man who later shot at her on Interstate 5 and led police on a 10-mile chase between Everett and Arlington, the Washington State Patrol said.

Courtney Smith said she’d never seen or met the man accused in the incident, 41-year-old Glenn Carter.

“I think he was just high and thought we were after him or something,” Smith said.

Smith said she was driving herself and a friend to her grandmother’s house when she saw a driving going the wrong way up the Marine View off-ramp. The driver made a U-turn and headed north on I-5.

“I slammed on the brakes. I was laying on the horn and finally I got past him a little bit and he rolled down his window and was like, ‘Who are you?’ Right after that, I heard ‘pop,’” Smith said, imitating the noise of the gunshot.

She said she was on the phone with a 911 dispatcher when a bullet blew out her back window and the passenger window, just inches from her head.

“I had glass in my shirt; I had glass all over the place. It was ridiculous,” Smith said.

KIRO 7’s Lee Stoll said Tuesday that glass was still in a Marysville parking lot where Smith pulled over after the shooting. Smith said the shooter followed her there and then jumped back on I-5, possibly scared off by other people who were nearby.

According to court documents, state troopers tracked Carter for 10 miles. He threw meth and a stolen revolver out of his window before finally pulling over.

Trooper Keith Leary said Smith not only saved her own life; she may have also protected anyone else who could have been driving that night.

“She did everything right to get away from this person and that’s exactly what she did,” Leary said.

Smith said she had to spend this month’s rent to replace her car’s windows, but she was also thankful that she escaped safely.

“I really think if he’d caught us, he would have finished what he started,” she said.

Prosecutors have increased Carter’s bail from $50,000 to $250,000.