Woman Slain Outside Loma Linda Emergency Room : Shooting: She is gunned down after leaving hospital with 4-year-old son. The assailant drives off with boy in what police say may be a domestic dispute.

A woman leaving the emergency room of Loma Linda University Medical Center with her young son was shot and killed Sunday by a man who then drove off with the boy, authorities said.

The woman, who had been treated earlier Sunday for flu-like symptoms, was shot as she and her 4-year-son were walking to her car outside the emergency room, authorities said.

Authorities did not know whether the boy was wounded in the gunfire. He and the gunman were missing Sunday night. Investigators believe that the man may be the boy’s father, but were uncertain. They said the incident was probably a domestic dispute.

“She was shot near our emergency room entrance in the parking lot,” said hospital spokeswoman Anita Rockwell. “The mother and son were treated earlier for flu-like symptoms. They had just left the emergency room and had walked out in the parking lot.”

She was identified as Ignacia Manriquez, 29, of Coachella, said San Bernardino County Deputy Coroner Steve Foster.

She was shot as she approached her car, which was parked about 50 yards from the hospital entrance, said Sgt. Paul Curry of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.

“The shooting was witnessed by people in the parking lot” who ran inside to notify hospital personnel, Curry said.

“We believe it was a domestic-type thing,” said sheriff’s dispatcher Debby Holman. It was not clear whether the gunman had been lying in wait at the hospital or had followed the woman there.

The gunman, who was described as a Latino man in his mid-30s with dark, curly hair, fled with the boy in a late model, faded gray Chrysler four-door sedan.

Rockwell said armed guards routinely patrol the emergency room and parking lot at the medical center, but are not stationed in one place.

A week ago, a disgruntled patient opened fire inside the emergency room at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, wounding three doctors.