Couple’s Car Fired Upon From Truck on Freeway

A Hawaiian Gardens couple barely escaped injury early Saturday when a pickup truck passed their car on a freeway in Norwalk and an occupant fired into the windshield of the couple’s car, sheriff’s deputies said.

In San Francisco, police reported the third traffic-related shooting in as many days. That attack left a young woman in critical condition with a gunshot wound to her chest.

About three dozen such incidents, mostly in Southern California, have been reported by law enforcement authorities since mid-June. They have caused four deaths and an estimated 15 injuries and have led to more than two dozen arrests.

Ruth Jadallah, 30, and her husband, Noureddin, 29, were southbound on the 605 Freeway near Firestone Boulevard shortly after 1 a.m. when their car was fired upon by someone in a passing pickup, a Sheriff’s Department spokesman said. Bullet fragments were found in the windshield.

In response to such incidents, a three-agency task force composed of the Los Angeles Police Department, the Sheriff’s Department and the California Highway Patrol put 35 helicopters on standby this weekend in an effort to quickly spot freeway shooters.

Shortly before midnight Friday in Bell Gardens, a man was killed after an argument over a traffic accident in front of his home, but authorities declined to classify it as a traffic-related shootings.

This death, a Sheriff’s Department spokesman said, stemmed from “an argument that got out of hand,” not from a calculated roadway assault.

The dispute began when Raymond Bernard Moreno, 20, accidentally struck a car parked at the curb across the street from his house on Purdy Avenue, sheriff’s deputies said.

Moreno and his brother, Larry Joseph Moreno, 27, a passenger, got into an argument with the owner of the other car, Moises Quintero Chavez, 34, who lives across the street. Chavez allegedly shot both brothers and a passenger, Alamillo Higinio, deputies said.

The elder Moreno was pronounced dead at the scene. His brother was treated at a nearby hospital and released. Higinio was in satisfactory condition.