2 Passengers Are Killed in Unrelated Shootings

A 23-year-old West Covina man who was shot by an occupant of another car on the Golden State Freeway in Sylmar died early Monday, authorities said.

In an unrelated shooting, a 16-year-old boy was killed while riding in a car in Palmdale early Sunday morning.

Frank Ignacio Salinas, a passenger in the back seat of the car in Sylmar, was shot several times in the upper body, said Sgt. Jason Beatty of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Devonshire Division.

The shooting occurred near the San Diego Freeway interchange about 6:50 p.m. Sunday when passengers of two cars traveling south on the Golden State Freeway began shouting gang affiliations, Beatty said.

The driver of the vehicle in which Salinas was riding exited the freeway in Sun Valley after the shooting and called police, Beatty said.

Paramedics took Salinas to Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, where he was pronounced dead about 2 a.m. Monday, Beatty said. Police had made no arrests by late Monday. An investigation was ongoing.

In the Palmdale shooting, a Sylmar youth riding in one car was fatally wounded during an argument with the occupants of another vehicle.

Alex Ceniceros was shot in the back shortly after the argument started about 3 a.m. at a fast-food restaurant in the 2500 block of East Avenue S, said homicide Det. Phil Martinez of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The two cars left the restaurant, but the argument continued for several blocks, police said.

“We believe that there was shooting coming back and forth,” Martinez said. “We are still investigating what happened.”

Ceniceros was pronounced dead about 3:30 a.m. at Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster, authorities said.

Martinez said the suspects’ car, a blue Saturn, was located on Avenue R, near the site of the shooting.