Mission Hills Man, 25, Cornered in Traffic, Shot

A Mission Hills man was shot early Sunday after his car was pinned between two other vehicles in what San Fernando police believe was a robbery attempt.

Los Angeles police reported a similar, and possibly related, incident a short time earlier in Sylmar.

The Mission Hills man, Benito Santillan, 25, was in serious condition after surgery for a bullet wound to his neck, San Fernando Police Sgt. Michael Harvey said. Santillan and his date, a 23-year-old Van Nuys woman, were driving south on Laurel Canyon Boulevard in Mission Hills about 2:30 a.m. when two northbound cars, each with two men in their 20s, turned around and followed them, Harvey said.

Santillan turned east onto Brand Boulevard, and at the intersection of Brand and O’Melveny Avenue in San Fernando, one car pulled in front of his vehicle and the second rear-ended him, Harvey said.

Two men approached Santillan’s car while the other two remained in their vehicles, Harvey said. One man grabbed the woman and pulled her from Santillan’s car. The second man ordered Santillan out of the vehicle. Santillan leaned over to pull his date back into the car when the man near him pulled a handgun and shot him once in the neck, Harvey said.

The men fled and the woman, who police refused to identify because she is a witness, drove Santillan to San Fernando Community Hospital. Santillan later was transferred to another hospital, which authorities refused to name because his assailants are still at large.

Shortly before 2:30 a.m., the Los Angeles Police Department’s Foothill Division received a report of a robbery at the intersection of Hubbard and Envoy streets. In that incident, one of three men pointed a gun at the driver of a pickup truck and took the vehicle, Foothill Sgt. Ken Dionne said.

Dionne said the victim’s truck had been followed by three vehicles. Descriptions of two--a brown Chevrolet Blazer and a blue Oldsmobile Cutlass--resembled the descriptions given in the San Fernando incident.