Restaurateur Killed in Freeway Shooting : Crime: Motorist is shot on the Harbor Freeway while driving at 60 m.p.h. Police say they have no suspects.

A motorist was shot and killed by an unknown assailant in another car Monday morning in crowded commuter traffic on the Harbor Freeway, authorities said.

Baltazar Bustamante Ayala, 29, was driving his red Pontiac Fiero to a restaurant he was planning to open soon in Gardena when he was struck by one of at least two shots fired about 5 a.m., Los Angeles police said.

Officers said Ayala was driving south on the freeway at about 60 m.p.h. when his car suddenly swerved from the center lanes, struck a concrete sound barrier and skidded for more than 1,000 feet before coming to a stop about a mile from where the shooting occurred.

Ayala’s body was slumped over the steering wheel when police arrived. He was dead of a bullet wound just below his left ear. The car’s emergency lights were flashing and the window on the driver’s side was shattered, officers said.

Police said there were no suspects.

“We do not know why this occurred. We do not know if there was a relationship between Mr. Ayala and (the gunman),” Lt. Bruce Hagerty of the Los Angeles Police Department’s South Bureau said. But, he added: “We are not at all convinced that it was a random shooting.”

Detective Paul Mize said employees of Ayala’s restaurant who passed the Fiero immediately after the shooting telephoned police.

Ayala had planned to meet his employees at the restaurant, which has not yet opened for business, police said.

A resident of Southwest Los Angeles, Ayala lived about three miles from the site of the shooting, just north of the Imperial Highway overpass.

Witnesses told police that two men in a yellow and black Pontiac Trans Am were alongside Ayala’s car when at least two shots sounded.

It was not known whether the assailant was in the Trans Am, investigators said, but the driver and passenger were being sought for questioning.

Police said Ayala, after being wounded, avoided striking any other cars on the crowded freeway. Ayala “did a masterful job of driving . . . for him to hang the car on the wall that way,” Mize said.

California Highway Patrol officers closed all southbound lanes of the freeway from Manchester Avenue to just south of Imperial Highway about 8:30 a.m. while detectives looked for evidence.

Motorists were redirected to surface streets and traffic on the freeway was backed up for miles. The freeway was reopened about 10 a.m.

Freeway shootings have occurred regularly in Southern California for a decade. The most publicized series of shootings occurred in the summer of 1987, resulting in criminal charges against 16 people.

Last month, 16-year-old Alex Rivera of Bell Gardens was shot and killed while riding with friends on the Long Beach Freeway. No one has been charged in that shooting.