Driver Found Fatally Shot Near Offramp

A driver was found fatally shot in a car near the eastbound Dyer Road offramp of the Costa Mesa Freeway late Monday, police said.

Officers were called at 8:37 p.m. to the scene, where a woman with gunshot wounds to the chest was found in a car at a traffic light, said Sgt. George Kopitch of the Santa Ana Police Department. She was transported to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, where she was later pronounced dead, authorities said.

Circumstances of the woman’s death “are a puzzlement to us,” Kopitch said. “What we have is a person who we believe drove off the freeway, stopped at a red light and became incapacitated from a gunshot wound.”

The woman, who was alone in the car, had not been identified late Monday. The California Highway Patrol closed the offramp for several hours to investigate.