Police Officer and 2 Others Hurt in Freeway Shootings

Three people, including an off-duty police officer and his young son, sustained minor wounds in separate freeway shootings, authorities said Thursday.

In the first incident, Los Angeles Police Officer Frank P. Anguiano, 24, with his 3-year-old son, was driving west on the Pomona Freeway near Azusa Avenue in the City of Industry about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, when a blue Toyota hatchback pulled alongside and one of the occupants opened fire with a small-caliber rifle, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Detta Roberts said.

Anguiano was wounded in the right arm. His son, Frank Jr., was shot in the right leg.

Afterward, Anguiano drove about 15 miles to the LAPD’s Central Division station downtown, where he works as a patrol officer. Fellow officers rushed the father and son to White Memorial Medical Center in Boyle Heights, where Anguiano was treated and released.

The officer’s son was admitted, but a hospital spokeswoman would not release details about the child’s condition.

Sheriff’s investigators said Anguiano told them he did nothing to provoke the incident.

They said the off-duty officer saw three men in the car. Anguiano reported that the gunman appeared to be between 18 and 23 years old.

No arrests had been made.

Pomona police reported Thursday that they had made no better progress solving a freeway shooting that happened within their jurisdiction Wednesday night.

Gerald Warthen, 36, of Covina, was driving on the transition road between eastbound Interstate 10 and the southbound 71 Freeway shortly before 10 p.m. when someone in a black, two-door Volkswagen GTI fired a shot at him, grazing his head, Detective Sgt. Gary Elofson said. Police said Warthen told them it felt like getting slapped. Warthen drove to his parents’ house nearby. Paramedics took him to Pomona Valley Community Hospital, where he was treated and released.