Gunfight on wheels rolls through San Leandro, police say

A crash in San Leandro following a gunfight between occupants of two cars seriously injured an innocent elderly couple Thursday, police said. A crash in San Leandro following a gunfight between occupants of two cars seriously injured an innocent elderly couple Thursday, police said. Photo: San Leandro Police Department / San Leandro Police Department Photo: San Leandro Police Department / San Leandro Police Department Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Gunfight on wheels rolls through San Leandro, police say 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Occupants of two cars raced through San Leandro shooting at one another Thursday, before one of the vehicles collided with a car occupied by an elderly couple as a suspect tried to flee the scene, police said.

An elderly man and woman in a dark-gray Toyota Prius on Dowling Boulevard near Washington Elementary School around 12:30 p.m. Thursday were hospitalized after a Nissan Altima driven by a man police say was involved in the shooting struck their car head-on.

The elderly couple were in “serious” condition Thursday night, according to the San Leandro Police Department.

When police arrived to the scene of the collision, they found the Prius wrecked and partially pushed on top of another car parked in the 300 block of Dowling Boulevard, police said.

Outside a preschool across the street, officers discovered the driver of the Altima nursing a non-life threatening gunshot wound, said Lt. Robert McManus, a spokesman for the department.

He declined to identify the man, who was transported to a hospital for treatment and then taken into custody on suspicion of involvement in the shooting and reckless driving.

McManus described the events leading up to the crash as a “rolling gun battle,” adding that the aftermath was a “horrible scene.”

The other vehicle involved in the shootout took off, police said, and no other arrests have been made.

Michael Bodley is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mbodley@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @michael_bodley