Tips Sought in Freeway Shooting of Boy, 12

A 12-year-old Whittier boy shot in the head in a “totally unprovoked” weekend attack along the Harbor Freeway clung to life Sunday as police renewed their call for eyewitnesses and sorted out leads.

“We’re getting different calls about vans that were observed in the general area,” said Los Angeles Police Detective Tal Terrell. “If I can get the van, I can go from there, even if it were a stolen van, torched or whatever.”

Richard Andrew Bautista, a Roman Catholic altar boy and soccer enthusiast, remained on life support at Martin Luther King/Drew Medical Center as a result of the shooting late Friday after a Dodgers game he had attended with a cousin and a friend.

Terrell said Richard’s 18-year-old cousin, Cynthia Ibarra, told police she was driving in the fast lane of the southbound Harbor Freeway when a man in a yellow van approached from behind and began shooting.

“She said, ‘I was maintaining speed, there were no cars coming up on me, and all of a sudden a van comes up with bright lights on, and moves over to the right,’ ” Terrell said. “They weren’t even sure it was gunfire until the windows starting breaking.

“What’s disturbing to me is that it was totally unprovoked,” the detective added. “They were all in the car talking about the baseball game. . . . And all of a sudden the shooting occurred.”

Authorities say the assailant apparently fired three shots before leaving the freeway at Century Boulevard and heading east. Richard, who underwent four hours of surgery, was listed in critical but stable condition Sunday.