Shooting Victim, Driver Hurt in Crash

A shooting victim and a good Samaritan who was driving him to the hospital were injured Tuesday morning when their car crashed and overturned in Mission Hills, Los Angeles police said.

The shooting victim, Anthony Christianson, 24, of Thousand Oaks, was then taken by ambulance to the Northridge Hospital Medical Center and was in stable condition after being treated for a gunshot wound to the chest and cuts and bruises from the car accident.

Police declined to name the car’s driver, who also suffered minor injuries in the crash.

Lt. Harvie Eubank said the incident began about 3:30 a.m. when Christianson pulled into a service station at Nordhoff Street and Sepulveda Boulevard and was confronted by a gunman who demanded money and shot him in the chest. The gunman fled on foot without taking anything.

Witnesses told police that Christianson went into the service station and asked for help getting to a hospital because he did not want police or paramedics called.

A 34-year-old customer who was in the store volunteered to drive Christianson’s car and take him to a hospital, police said. But as he drove the car onto a nearby Sepulveda Boulevard on-ramp of the Simi Valley Freeway, the car swerved, hit a truck and went off the road and flipped, police said.