Wild Blue Yonder Gets Wilder: Pilot Reports Gun Threat

A law that would imprison highway gunslingers for at least three years was proposed Wednesday as violence spread from the freeways to the sky, where one pilot reported another one drew a gun on him.

“Maybe next time they can do it in rocket ships,” said a spokesman for the Marines Corps, which volunteered the use of a helicopter in an unsuccessful attempt to catch the airborne gunman.

The spate of motorist-to-motorist violence, which started in mid-June, has left four people dead and 15 injured on Southern California freeways. Eighteen people have been arrested, although one was released for lack of evidence. More than 40 shootings, rock-throwings and other attacks have been recorded.

Most of those arrested so far have been booked for investigation of attempted murder. A first-degree attempted murder conviction carries a prison sentence of 25 years to life.

It appeared that the highway violence had moved to the crowded sky Tuesday when the pilot of a Cessna 150 reported that the pilot of a Citabria brandished a gun at him as the two planes flew off the coast of Oceanside, 70 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Elly Bekke said. No shots were fired.

The Marine Corps Air Station in El Toro volunteered a CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter in an unsuccessful attempt to find the gun-wielding pilot, Bekke said.

“I guess this is a new twist to the freeway shootings. Maybe next time they can do it in rocket ships,” Maj. Hank Polacke said Wednesday, stressing that the Marine Corps was very concerned about the situation.

FAA spokeswoman Barbara Abels said Wednesday that investigators had located the Citabria pilot and that he denied drawing a gun.

The dispute involved two aerial fish spotters for competing commercial fish companies and centered on fishing areas, she said.

She said the pilots each accused the other of traveling too close to the other. The Citabria pilot said the Cessna pilot recently dropped a brick close to his firm’s boat, sparking the dispute.

“We’re still looking into the matter . . . but there doesn’t appear to be any criminal intent. There does not appear to be interference with air transportation. It appears to be a dispute between two individuals,” Abels said.

The names of the pilots were not released.

Pipe Bomb Found

In still another twist to the wave of violence, a homemade pipe bomb hidden in a white gym sock was found beside the Santa Ana Freeway on Wednesday.

A Los Angeles County Mosquito Abatement Bureau employee found the bomb, with a 12-inch dynamite fuse, while spraying insecticide along the freeway near its intersection with the San Gabriel River Freeway, Downey Police Department spokesman Robert Edmonds said.

It appeared that the bomb had been tossed from a northbound car on the Santa Ana Freeway, Edmonds said. Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies planned to examine the bomb, the officer added.

State Assemblyman Paul E. Zeltner (R-Lakewood) announced Wednesday that he will propose urgency legislation later this month to crack down on freeway shooters.

His bill would permanently revoke the driver’s license of anyone convicted of shooting from one car at another, require a minimum prison sentence of three years for anyone convicted of such a crime, and require a minimum state prison sentence of up to seven years if a death occurs as a result of such a crime.

Not a ‘Lawless Society’

“We must put copycat shooters on notice that they do not live in a lawless society with no penalties for their actions,” Zeltner said.

His proposal, to be introduced when the Legislature reconvenes Aug. 17, drew the immediate support of representatives of the California Highway Patrol, Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Los Angeles County Police Chiefs Assn. and Caltrans, the state transportation agency.

“The LAPD endorses Assemblyman Beltran’s proposal 100%,” said Assistant Chief Robert Vernon. “We need this bill.”

Meanwhile, Stephen Broderson, one of two teen-agers fired upon in an attack Tuesday night on Interstate 5 in the Irvine area, said he had made a lane change in front of a pickup truck but did nothing to provoke the shooting.

“It was your normal, everyday lane change, but I guess these guys thought we cut in front of them,” Broderson said Wednesday.

Find 2 Bullet Holes

Neither Broderson, 19, of Camarillo, nor his girlfriend, Rochelle Sabo, 17, of Spring Valley, were injured, but they found two bullet holes in the driver’s side of their car.

He said the pickup, carrying three people, chased them at speeds of up to 90 m.p.h. for several miles until he finally evaded it by changing lanes suddenly and turning onto another freeway.

Broderson’s girlfriend got the truck’s license number and Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies arrested a La Puente teen-ager for investigation of attempted murder.