2 Arrests Made, More Expected in Window Attacks

Stressing that Los Angeles’ frightening spate of car window shatterings may not be over yet, California Highway Patrol officials said Thursday that the apprehension of two men in connection with some of the 244 freeway attacks is probably just the beginning of a series of arrests.

“These are undoubtedly not the only individuals responsible for the recent rash of vandalism,” said CHP Deputy Chief Ed Gomez at an afternoon press conference. “We do expect more arrests in the near future.”

CHP officials said they will ask prosecutors to file felony charges against Jose Soto, 21, and Hugo Hernandez, 22, both of Los Angeles, who were taken into custody Wednesday night near USC.

At the press conference, authorities displayed BBs, air guns and a variety of brightly colored marbles that they said they found in a search of Soto’s residence--the same kind of weapons and projectiles authorities have suspected were being used in the attacks.

Soto and Hernandez were being held Thursday in Los Angeles County Jail on suspicion of possessing weapons in violation of their parole. A judge Thursday revoked their probation for previous theft-related convictions, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office said.

The CHP said it will ask the district attorney to file charges against Soto and Hernandez for throwing objects that could cause great bodily harm when thrown at a vehicle. No one has been injured in the attacks.

At the press conference, investigators detailed the Wednesday night arrests, which followed a Sunday tip to the CHP’s Vandalism Apprehension Task Force hotline.

Capt. Ray Blackwell, the task force commander, said the pair had been under surveillance Wednesday at Soto’s residence on 30th Street near Catalina Street when they left in a van. The two, along with a third man not believed involved in the freeway incidents, were pulled over at Vermont Avenue and Exposition Boulevard.

Police said they found BBs and marbles in the aging Dodge van.

In a search of Soto’s home, investigators said, they discovered a sawed-off shotgun, an AK-47 assault rifle, a 9-millimeter semiautomatic handgun, BBs, marbles, spark plugs and two air guns.

Blackwell said marbles, BBs and spark plug fragments have been found in several vehicles damaged in the freeway incidents.

Gomez would not say how many of the attacks Soto and Hernandez are believed responsible for, but stressed that they are not thought to have been involved in all of them.

“It’s not over, we know that,” Gomez said, adding that the two BB guns were compelling evidence that Soto and Hernandez were responsible for at least some of the incidents.

Even as authorities anticipated making additional arrests, there were more reports of freeway attacks on car windows, at least three by late Wednesday, the CHP said. At the press conference, investigators also outlined a variety of methods that they believe different groups of vandals are using to shatter vehicle windows. They suspect that some are throwing objects from overpasses and the sides of freeways. In other cases vandals are driving next to or behind victims’ cars, they said.

“We don’t think they’re trying to hurt anyone,” Gomez said. “That’s why we’re calling it vandalism.”

Blackwell said that although the two suspects were “self-proclaimed gang members,” authorities are still investigating whether the freeway incidents are linked to organized gang activity or graffiti tagging crews.

Authorities said Hernandez was convicted in 1994 of auto theft and sentenced to one year in jail and three years probation. Soto was convicted of receiving stolen property in 1993 and sentenced to 180 days in jail and three years probation.

The attacks on motorists began Sept. 11, when five drivers on the Long Beach and San Bernardino freeways described what would become an oft-repeated experience: They were observing the speed limit, and had not made any sudden lane changes or quarreled with any other drivers, when suddenly they heard a loud pop and the sound of their rear windows shattering.

None of the victims could tell where the attacks had originated. Still more perplexing, authorities often found small holes in glass that remained intact, but did not initially find any projectiles in or around the cars, giving rise to wild theories that anything from sound waves to melting ice balls could be breaking the windows.

CHP investigators suspected that the vandals were driving behind their victims, using either BB guns, pellet guns or high-powered slingshots that could propel small objects with enough power to shatter the glass, but not enough force to go through the window and come to rest inside the car.

As publicity surrounding the case grew, so did the number of attacks--pointing to the likelihood of copycats, Blackwell said.

On Oct. 1, the night of the greatest number of attacks, 42 moving vehicles had their rear windows shattered on freeways from the San Gabriel Valley to Hollywood, often in quick succession.

Authorities said Thursday that they do not know whether Soto and Hernandez were responsible for any of those attacks.

The shatterings that night began at 7:41 p.m., when a car window was struck on the southbound Long Beach Freeway at the eastbound Century Freeway. From there, authorities were able to trace the attackers’ route:

The next car was hit just two minutes later on the eastbound Century at Lakewood Boulevard. Then another was attacked at 7:46 p.m. on the Century just west of Bellflower Boulevard. And another window was shattered at 7:47 p.m. at the junction of the Century and 605 freeways.

Seven minutes later, an attack occurred on the northbound 605 at Washington Boulevard.

Again on the 605, a car window was hit just south of Rose Hills Road. Then, at 7:55, assailants struck near Whittier Boulevard before the attacks continued on the eastbound San Bernardino Freeway. During the early part of the evening, vandals blew out nine windows on four freeways within 18 minutes. Other strings of attacks that night lasted much longer, frustrating motorists who could not understand why authorities were unable to catch the vandals in the act.

The CHP, however, has dispatched as many as 200 cars some evenings on Los Angeles-area freeways, up from its usual patrol of 25 to 30 cars, Gomez said.

Once attacks began on the Santa Monica Freeway at 7:56 p.m. Oct. 1, nine more car windows were hit in 46 minutes, first on the eastbound side of the freeway and then on the westbound side.

Because vandals have been able to hit cars across a wide swath of territory in a relatively short period of time, authorities have been convinced that several groups of vandals and their copycats have been targeting different areas.

But some patterns emerge nonetheless.

Almost all of the attacks have taken place after dark, between 7 p.m. and midnight, although almost half have happened between 9 and 11 p.m.

Shortly after the attacks began, it seemed as though weekends were the vandals’ favorite times to attack.

But that changed as the shatterings continued. Since the attacks began, the greatest number--61--have occurred on Tuesdays.

Motorists have been struck on 15 area freeways, but more than half of the attacks have taken place on four: the Santa Monica (Interstate 10), San Bernardino (Interstate 10), Harbor (Interstate 110) and Hollywood (U.S. 101).

Times correspondent Maki Becker and Times staff writers Miles Corwin and Cecilia Rasmussen contributed to this story.

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Road Hazards

Since Sept. 11, the rear windows of nearly 240 vehicles on Los Angeles-area freeways have been shattered by vandals. Although attacks have been reported on 15 freeways, more than half have occurred on just three: Interstate 10, U.S. 101, and Interstate 110. Nearly half of the attacks have occurred between 9 and 11 p.m.

Hours of Attacks

6 to 7 p.m.: 13

7 to 8 p.m.: 32

8 to 9 p.m.: 39

9 to 10 p.m.: 70

10 to 11 p.m.: 46

11 to midnight: 10

Source: California Highway Patrol

Researched by CECILIA RASMUSSEN and ABAGAIL GOLDMAN / Los Angeles Times