A Shattering Experience for Drivers

They are a disparate group bonded only by a moment of fright.

Andy Ampie was driving home Wednesday night along the Century Freeway. He heard a loud pop and looked back to find his rear window smashed to pieces.

Fiet Dai was on the San Gabriel River Freeway the same night, heading home to Westminster from his sister’s house in El Monte.

“I don’t know who, I don’t know why,” Dai said. “I was very scared.”

Since Sept. 11, nearly 150 motorists have been similarly victimized by this new type of urban terror, in which someone shoots an unidentified projectile at vehicles along Los Angeles freeways using unidentified weapons from unidentified locations.

Police have theorized that the vandals--who have hit as many as 42 windows in a night, including at least two Thursday night--are hitting their marks from another car, driving behind their victims. A passenger could slip a weapon out the window and fire, while the driver keeps up with the flow of traffic, CHP officers said.

When the CHP has taken reports that include a recovered projectile, such as a Wednesday night incident on Avalon Boulevard in the Carson-Willowbrook area, investigators have generally been able to distinguish the attacks from the string of freeway incidents.

For example, in the Avalon crime, the recovered projectile--a marble found inside the car--and the fact that it occurred away from the freeway probably means that it was an isolated, or copycat, incident, said CHP Sgt. Ernie Garcia. The aberrations, he added, bring the CHP no closer to finding clues, methods or suspects in the main spate of attacks.

What the victims are sure about is that the experiences--which occur after sunset--are horrifying. After the police are called, the glass is cleaned up and the new window is paid for, it becomes infuriating.

“There are people out there getting their kicks shooting at cars,” said one victim, who asked that his name not be used. “It’s something that I don’t need to deal with in my life. It’s cost me time and money and it’s a miracle that no one has been injured.”

Investigators have said that they have not found any pattern to the 146 attacks. The vandals have hit windows on several freeways, although they have been concentrated around East Los Angeles and the western San Gabriel Valley.

The vandals have hit every kind of vehicle: old cars and new trucks, fancy automobiles and rusted-out beaters. Targeted drivers seem to be from every race, age group and ethnicity in Los Angeles County.

All of which makes the victims, and much of the rest of the driving public, feel more vulnerable.

Howard Luan, 45, of Diamond Bar stressed that he did nothing to provoke the attack on him just before 8 p.m. Tuesday.

He was near the Washington Boulevard exit of the northbound San Gabriel River Freeway, in the lane second from the left. He was driving the speed limit. He had not changed lanes, passed another driver, insulted any motorist or in any way distinguished himself from the hundreds of other cars on the road, Luan said.

All of a sudden, he heard the telltale boom.

“Frankly, I’m worried,” Luan said. “It could happen to me again. A lot of the cases have happened on the 605 [Freeway].

“We cannot just avoid the freeway,” he added.