Couple Shot by Gunman in Chatsworth

A woman and her boyfriend were shot at a popular “lovers lane” in Chatsworth by a gunman posing as a police officer, authorities said Sunday.

The couple, Rosa Alexandra Trillos, 21, of Canoga Park and Gaspar Sanchez-Contreras, 24, of Sun Valley were both listed in fair condition at area hospitals, said Los Angeles Police Detective Tom Broad.

No arrests have been made and police said they had no motive in the shooting.

Trillos told police that she and Sanchez-Contreras were parked off of Santa Susana Pass Road near Rocky Peak Road about 9:40 p.m. Saturday when a man walked up to their car holding a chrome revolver. The man--described as six feet tall, with a mustache and brown hair--said he was a police officer, warned the couple that they could be arrested for parking at the spot and ordered them out of the car, Broad said.

The gunman then shot Sanchez-Contreras in the chest, Broad said. Trillos started to run and was shot in the back. Then the gunman told her “to calm down and that everything was going to be OK,” Broad said.

But as Trillos started to walk toward the gunman, anxious to check on her boyfriend, the attacker shot her in the shoulder, Broad said. She lay down on the ground, “pretending she was dead,” he said.

The gunman dragged Sanchez-Contreras to where Trillos had fallen.

At that moment, a car carrying three Simi Valley teen-agers approached, apparently scaring off the gunman, Broad said.

One of the teen-agers, Ryan Van Buskirk, said in an interview that he had seen a man walking on the side of the road just before he noticed Trillos, her shoulder covered with blood, hysterically screaming, “Help us. Pull over. Help us.”

The teen-agers left to call 911. Trillos, meanwhile, managed to drive herself and her boyfriend to the corner of Santa Susana Pass and Topanga Canyon Boulevard, where they met rescuers.

Police, who believe that the gunman may have parked a car nearby, conducted a search of the area, using a helicopter.