Tailgater on Santa Ana Freeway Shoots, Kills Man in Slower Vehicle

Sheriff’s homicide detectives were asking the public’s help in finding a tailgater who shot and killed a passenger in a slower car on the Santa Ana Freeway in Santa Fe Springs Saturday night.

Rick Lane Bynum, 24, of Orange, was killed as his 3-year-old son, visiting him for Father’s Day, sat nearby, according to Deputy Fidel Gonzales of the Sheriff’s Information Bureau.

Bynum’s girlfriend, Sandra Leigh Tait, 18, told deputies she was driving south in the No. 1 lane about 9:45 p.m. when the tailgater flashed his lights at her. Gonzales said Tait could not change lanes immediately because of traffic, and instead slowed down.

Shot Twice in Neck

The suspect then pulled alongside Tait’s car in the vicinity of Carmenita Road and shot Bynum twice in the neck through the passenger-side window.

Horrified, Tait got off the freeway at Valley View Avenue and went to a Denny’s Restaurant on Firestone Boulevard to telephone for help. Gonzales said Bynum was dead when help arrived.

There appeared to be no motive other than the assailant’s apparent anger at the slower vehicle, according to Deputy Van Mosley.

Tait described the car as a yellow Toyota, 1980-82, possibly with primer spots on the right-rear quarter panel, Gonzales said.

The suspect was described as a dark-haired Anglo or Latino male with a mustache.

Freeway Killing Aug. 22

Police noted that a freeway tailgating incident last Aug. 22 also resulted in a shooting death. Corona Police Officer Patricia Dwyer was killed by a shotgun blast fired into her van on the Riverside Freeway as her husband was rushing their injured son to a hospital. A man was arrested and accused of murder in that case.

In the Dwyer killing, the victim’s husband was cut off by a car that pulled into his lane. Dwyer followed the slower vehicle closely, then pulled around it and hurled an empty soda can out the window as he passed. The slower vehicle then followed the van for several miles, finally shooting into it.

Anyone with information on Saturday’s incident should contact the Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau at 974-4341.