Man Shot on Ventura Freeway by Woman Passenger in Jeep

A 53-year-old man was shot on the Ventura Freeway by a passenger in a Jeep that had tried unsuccessfully to pass him, police said Thursday.

The Glendale man, whose name was not released, was driving his pickup east on the freeway just past San Fernando Road in the leftmost lane about 7:40 p.m. when the vehicle behind him started flashing its bright lights, said Rodney Brooks, a spokesman for the Glendale Police Department.

The late-model red Jeep--driven by a man with a long, blond ponytail--moved into the next lane and pulled alongside the pickup, Brooks said. “The two drivers exchanged gestures,” Brooks said.

Then a passenger in the Jeep--described as a white woman in her late 30s with shoulder-length light brown hair--pulled out a gun, leaned across the driver’s seat, and fired six to eight shots into the pickup, Brooks said.

The driver of the pickup was hit twice in the leg, and the Jeep darted off the freeway at the Pacific Avenue exit, Brooks said. The pickup made it over to the right shoulder of the freeway, where another motorist who saw the shooting pulled up and used the freeway call box to summon an ambulance, Brooks said.