2 Die in Freeway Shooting; Boy, 3, Found in Car

With a young boy riding in the back seat, a man fatally shot his female passenger Saturday night, then turned the gun on himself as he drove in the southbound car-pool lane of the San Diego Freeway, according to Westminster police.

Police said the boy, believed to be 3,was found unharmed even after the car traveled a short distance and crashed into the center divider.

Sgt. Bob Amren, a watch commander for the Westminster police department, said investigators were trying to determine the relationship between the boy and the two victims. Neither the victims nor the young boy could be identified Saturday night.

“It’s traumatic for all of us,” Amren said. “It hits home because we’ve all got children.”

Amren said police received a report from the California Highway Patrol at 10:20 p.m. Saturday of a possible murder-suicide that had occurred north of the freeway’s Westminster Boulevard offramp, near the Springdale Street overpass.

When police arrived, they discovered the bodies of the two adults slumped in the front seat of a light brown 1976 AMC Pacer, Amren said. A handgun was found lying next to the driver.

The car was not badly damaged, having only scraped its left side against the guard rail before its left front tire blew out and it ground to a halt. But at midnight Saturday, traffic was being diverted around the car-pool lane as the vehicle was still partially blocking that lane of the highway.

California Highway Patrol, Westminster police and Caltrans officials were all at the scene.

“It’s kind of bizarre,” Amren said. “The car continued along the guard rail for a short distance before it crashed and stopped.”

The child was transported to the Westminster Police Department on Saturday night. Police said he would be transferred to the Orangewood Children’s Home today.