Fatal Shotgun Blast Ends Traffic Dispute

A driver with a shotgun opened fire on another vehicle in broad daylight on busy Beach Boulevard on Friday, fatally wounding a 19-year-old passenger in the head.

Police said both drivers, who apparently had been arguing, were stopped next to each other in 11 a.m. traffic when one of them reached in the back seat, pulled out a pistol-handled shotgun and fired into the other vehicle. That driver ducked, but the shot struck and killed his passenger, Steve Kiley Escalera of Anaheim.

The killer, driving a dirty, light-blue Pontiac Grand Prix, remains at large.

Spencer Cole, a witness who sprinted to the truck to try to help Escalera, said: “There was nothing I could do for him. I felt so helpless.”

Lt. Jeff Cope said police believe the argument began on Beach Boulevard at the Garden Grove Freeway and continued as both vehicles entered Huntington Beach, about 5 miles away.

As Ralph Clark, 18, and Escalera reached Alhambra Drive in Clark’s Datsun pickup, they apparently again exchanged angry words with the driver of the Pontiac, Detective Richard Hooper said.

Hooper declined to reveal details about the argument, saying only that “preliminary evidence suggests it was some kind of name-calling.”

The Pontiac driver reached for a gun, pointed it out the passenger window, aimed it directly at Clark and fired once, police said.

But Clark, seeing the weapon pointed at him from a distance of about 8 feet, ducked, Hooper said. Escalera, however, was not fast enough and was struck in the left side of the head. The assailant calmly drove away, witnesses told police.

Confused and disoriented, Clark continued to drive for about 100 feet, then pulled over at the intersection of Beach Boulevard and Heil Avenue. There, he jumped out, stood in middle of the crowded street and began screaming desperately for help.

Clark’s yells were heard by installers at Henry’s Auto Stereo by a nearby used-car salesman.

The gunshot had “sounded like a backfire” of a car exhaust, said one installer who asked that his name not be used. Looking up, the installers at Henry’s saw the hysterical man.

“He was running around the car,” the installer said. “He was yelling, ‘Somebody help me! Help me!’ ”

Cole was waiting for customers in a nearby car lot when he heard one shot and then saw the Datsun coast to a stop. At first he thought a minor traffic accident had occurred, he said, but then he noticed blood spattered across the windshield of the Datsun and saw the driver get out.

Escalera, his head slumped back, sat motionless. Blood was streaming from his face.

Cole, a Vietnam veteran who witnessed several friends die in action during his tour of duty on a riverboat, said he sprinted across Heil Avenue, hoping he could help save the young man.

“I went over to help him,” Cole said. “I thought there was a chance for him. I’ve seen guys shot up bad and still they made it.”

But by the time Cole reached the truck, Escalera was going into shock, the salesman said. His breathing became shallower and he began shaking. By the time paramedics arrived, he had lapsed into a coma.

Escalera was rushed to Humana Hospital-Huntington Beach, where he was dead on arrival, Hooper said.

Police closed all but one lane of Beach Boulevard between Alhambra Drive and Heil Avenue for five hours.

Clark’s truck was left sitting in the street for most of the day, its bloodstained passenger door open, while detectives collected evidence and questioned witnesses cloistered inside the car stereo shop.

Police said they have no leads on the killer other than a composite drawing and a description of the car he was driving. A license plate number was not immediately known, but the Pontiac was a 1976 or 1978 model, they said.

“Somebody out there knows this guy,” Hooper said. “The question is whether they will come forward.” The driver was described as in his late 20s or early 30s, with shoulder-length, dirty blond hair, brown eyes, a slender build and a thick mustache.

“This guy must have already been highly agitated,” Hooper said. “He was primed for this poor guy who was driving down the street minding his own business.”

Cole, still shaken by the incident, said that he feared violent crime is becoming commonplace in Orange County.

“It kind of makes you believe in gun control,” he said. “I came home from the war, but it’s like a war zone here.”

Anyone with information is asked to call police at (714) 375-5066.

Stoplight Shooting

Police are looking for a driver who shot and killed the passenger of a truck that idled next to him at a Huntington Beach intersection.

Victim: Steve Kiley Escalera, Anaheim.

Suspect: Age 28-34, dirty blond hair, brown eyes, slender.

Suspect’s car: Dirty, light-blue, 1976-78 Pontiac Grand Prix