3 Arrested in Rock Attack on Freeway : Crime: A man and two minors are accused of conspiracy, attempted murder and assault. A fourth suspect is expected to surrender after the holiday.

By ASHLEY DUNN

Dec. 25, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Three suspects were arrested and a warrant issued for the arrest of a fourth in connection with a random rock attack along the San Diego Freeway that left four people injured and up to 20 vehicles damaged, the California Highway Patrol announced Thursday.

Only one of the suspects, 18-year-old Gary Dean Nelson of Redondo Beach, was identified by authorities. The other three, also from Redondo Beach, are minors.

CHP Officer Esmeralda Leos said the arrests came after the CHP received several anonymous tips from acquaintances of the youths concerning the Monday night freeway attack .

Three of the suspects were arrested Wednesday evening, Leos said. The fourth suspect is vacationing in Seattle and is expected to turn himself in after the Christmas holiday, she said.

Leos said the youths were arrested on charges of conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and throwing objects at vehicles on the freeway.

The freeway attack occurred shortly before 9 p.m. Monday on the San Diego Freeway between the exits at Artesia and Crenshaw boulevards.

According to the CHP, the suspects had run across the roadway and entered a construction site in the middle of the freeway.

From behind a plywood barrier, the suspects pelted southbound cars with chunks of concrete, ranging in size from a baseball to a bowling ball, officers said.

The most serious injury occurred when a 10-pound fragment smashed the windshield of a vehicle driven by 55-year-old Ali Reshamwalla of Tustin. Reshamwalla was taken to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center with severe head injuries. He is currently listed in critical, but stable condition.

Three other people received minor to moderate injuries.

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Ashley Dunn

Ashley Dunn is the former weekend editor at the Los Angeles Times. He previously served as assistant managing editor in charge of California news. Dunn joined The Times in 1986 as a suburban reporter in the San Gabriel Valley and later moved to the Metro section, where he participated in coverage of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and the 1992 Los Angeles riots. After a stint at the New York Times, Dunn returned to Los Angeles in 1998 as a reporter and then editor in The Times’ Business section. He later was named to run science coverage. He worked as deputy national editor from 2007 to 2011 and played a central role in the coverage of some of the biggest national stories of recent years, including the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the 2008 election of President Obama. Prior to his career at The Times, Dunn worked at the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, the Danbury News-Times in Connecticut and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Dunn is a California native who has worked as a dishwasher in Sacramento, a printer in San Francisco and a bicycle repairman in Walnut Creek. He has lived along the levees of the Sacramento Delta, the Powell-Hyde Street cable car line and the shaded streets of Pasadena. He is a graduate of UC Berkeley with a degree in English.

3 Arrested in Rock Attack on Freeway : Crime: A man and two minors are accused of conspiracy, attempted murder and assault. A fourth suspect is expected to surrender after the holiday.

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