5 Arrested in Fatal Shooting of Driver, 17

Acting on information from an anonymous informant, police arrested four young men and a woman early today in the fatal highway shooting of a 17-year-old driver in Pomona.

Details were not immediately disclosed, but Pomona Police Lt. Archie Johnson said investigators have determined that the death of Russell Joseph Pirrone was neither the result of a random traffic-related shooting nor gang activity.

“They are continuing the investigation to determine the motive,” he said.

Johnson identified those arrested as Javier Arsaga, 19; Angel Bernardo Reyes, 20, and David Robert Walsh, 19, all of Pomona, and Richard Bruce Hamilton, 19, of Montclair. A 21-year-old unidentified woman was arrested later in the morning.

The suspects were arrested about 1 a.m. today, according to Johnson. He said specifics of the investigation will be discussed in more detail at a press conference scheduled for mid-afternoon.

‘Underlying Sickness’

At young Pirrone’s Phillips Ranch home, Larry Pirrone, an insurance agent, said he is pleased that police have arrested suspects in his son’s death, but he added:

“Personally, I don’t think it solves anything because it can’t bring Russell back. We have an underlying sickness in our society that something must be done about. My son was a very decent human being and he was innocent.”

The teen-ager was shot in the head Friday evening by a cursing passenger in a pickup truck just after Pirrone turned right off Old Pomona Road and drove southbound in his Volkswagen Beetle on California 71.

There has been a rash of traffic-related shootings on Southern California roadways in the last month. The latest occurred Monday night when a tow truck operator was fired upon by a driver who had blocked his entry onto the Golden State Freeway in Sun Valley, police said. The tow truck driver was not injured in the attack.