Man Shot in Carjacking; Suspect Arrested : Crime: An Anaheim resident--accosted while waiting for his son outside a clinic--remains in ‘guarded’ condition at a local hospital. Los Angeles police later stop the victim’s car and take driver into custody.

A 30-year-old Anaheim man waiting for his son to be treated at an allergy clinic was shot in the head Monday by a carjacker who fled in his car to Los Angeles, police said. Officers later arrested the suspect and recovered the car.

Police said Jerry Glen Atkins was accosted by a gunman just before 5 p.m. while standing behind his car in the parking lot of the Cigna Health Center in the 1400 block of Brookhurst Street.

After ordering Atkins to the ground, the carjacker aimed a pistol at him and pulled the trigger, according to David A. Kilde, director of corporate security for Cigna. When the gun misfired twice, Atkins got up and tried to escape.

“At that point, the assailant struck him in the face,” Kilde said. “Then he shot him in the mouth.” The gunman fled in Atkins’ 1988 Ford Taurus station wagon.

Still coherent, Atkins ran into the clinic, screaming. Marla French of Anaheim, who was in the clinic with her two children, said Atkins shouted, “Somebody hijacked my car . . . call my wife.”

“There was blood all over the place,” French said.

Atkins, covered with blood, collapsed in the lobby, French said. He was able to relay phone numbers for his son’s relatives while clinic doctors treated him until emergency personnel arrived and took him to UCI Medical Center in Orange.

Atkins is expected to survive, Fullerton police said late Monday. The hospital said Atkins’ condition was “guarded.”

Police said the assailant fled west on the Riverside Freeway.

Two hours later, Los Angeles police officers stopped the victim’s vehicle at 63rd Street and Denver Avenue, and arrested the driver, Fullerton Sgt. Neal Baldwin said.

The suspect, who has not been identified, was expected to be returned to Fullerton jail and booked on suspicion of attempted murder, Baldwin said.

Baldwin said the carjacking appeared to be a random act.

“That’s what it looks like at this time,” Baldwin said.