Shots Fired at CHP Officer; 3 Arrested

Three men were in jail Sunday after four or five shots were fired at a California Highway Patrol officer as he sat in his patrol car in Newhall Saturday night, authorities said.

The shots missed the patrol car. The men were arrested a few minutes later by the officer and several other CHP officers and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies who heard his call for help, said Sgt. David Taplin of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

The officer was unharmed.

The three men, Margarito Leyva, 27; Victor Espinoza, 21, and Alfredo Pellares, 33, all of Newhall, were arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and were being held without bail in the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Department Jail, he said.

The CHP officer, who was not identified, heard four to five gunshots while he was parked in his patrol car on the shoulder of the southbound Sierra Highway about half a mile south of San Fernando Road at about 9:30 p.m., Taplin said.

6-Minute Chase

The officer saw muzzle flashes coming from the driver’s side of a blue pickup truck occupied by three men and chased the truck while calling for assistance, Taplin said. The men were arrested six minutes later at Arch Street and San Fernando Road in Newhall, he said.

A .25-caliber semi-automatic pistol was found in the suspects’ truck, he said.

Taplin said the motive for the shooting is unknown.

About half an hour later, a 24-year-old Los Angeles man reported that another man bashed his pickup truck with a crowbar after an exchange of obscenities that followed a traffic dispute on the Antelope Valley Freeway near Canyon Country, the CHP said.

The unnamed victim said he was twice cut off by the driver of a pickup truck, whom he said he in turn cut off. The victim said the driver of the other truck followed him off the freeway and threatened him as he stopped at a red light at Sierra Highway and Soledad Canyon Road.

The driver smashed the victim’s truck with a crowbar and fled, the CHP said.

In an effort to curb the spate of highway violence, Gov. George Deukmejian proposed on Saturday that the state spend $27 million to hire 150 more Highway Patrol officers and $2 million more for overtime pay.

The governor said there have been 119 reported incidents of freeway violence statewide--resulting in the deaths of four people--since June.