Driver Shot on 405 in Valley

A 19-year-old Chatsworth man was shot several times Sunday while driving on the San Diego Freeway near North Hills, the sixth such assault on Southern California freeways in the last 2 1/2 months.

The victim, who was treated at a hospital and released, was traveling north on the freeway between Roscoe Boulevard and Nordhoff Street at 12:45 a.m. when a black Honda carrying five men approached and fired into his vehicle, said Officer Sandra Escalante of the Los Angeles Police Department. The victim told police that the assailants had “shaved heads” and shot him for “no reason,” Escalante said.

The assailants then raced off the freeway. The wounded man, whose name was not released, drove several miles seeking help. After exiting the freeway, he came upon paramedics who were responding to an unrelated traffic collision at Devonshire Street and Balboa Boulevard, Escalante said.

Paramedics treated the man and took him to Providence Holy Cross Medical Center. Police said they did not know where the victim was headed at the time of the incident or if there was an altercation before the shooting. About half an hour after that shooting, the California Highway Patrol investigated a call about gunfire on the Foothill Freeway near Hubbard Street. CHP Officer Tariq Johnson said a driver reported being fired at several times from another vehicle. Nothing was hit, and Johnson said the CHP was unable to confirm that the shooting occurred.

In recent weeks, authorities have expressed concern about the rash of freeway shootings, which -- including Sunday -- have left at least four men dead and three wounded.

The latest shooting prompted the CHP to step up patrols on the San Diego Freeway in the San Fernando Valley, they said Sunday.

The CHP previously increased its presence along stretches of freeway where earlier shootings occurred.

So far, authorities do not believe any of the shootings are related. It is unclear whether the assaults are random acts of violence, related to gang or drug activity or involve some other motive. Authorities have stressed that though they are alarming, shooting incidents on the freeways remain very rare.

Three of the recent shootings have occurred in the afternoon, three were early in the morning.

No arrests have been made despite pleas from the families of some victims and, in some cases, partial descriptions of the vehicles or drivers involved.

Police have speculated that with no arrests yet, some shooters may now feel emboldened. Authorities also fear that some incidents may have involved “copycat” criminals. Often there are few witnesses when such attacks occur, making it difficult for officers to identify suspects. In five of the six assaults, the victims were lone motorists.

The wave of car-to-car attacks started March 12, when a 26-year-old Fontana engineer was fatally shot in the head on the Costa Mesa Freeway in Tustin about 1 p.m. The stretch of freeway also was the site of an early morning shooting a week ago in which a 32-year old man was shot in the neck.

Among the freeway shooting fatalities: On March 29, a 20- year-old college student was killed on the Harbor Freeway in South Angeles. Two weeks later, a 47-year old man was killed on the same stretch of freeway en route to a Bible study class and his passenger was injured when the car crashed. And a 32-year-old man was killed on the 60 Freeway in Riverside on April 21.

Violence on Southern California’s roads drew national attention in 1987 when a rash of summer shootings left at least five people dead and more than a dozen injured.

Those incidents led lawmakers to authorize the hiring of 150 additional CHP officers as well as to stiffen criminal penalties. Police arrested more than a dozen suspects in violent traffic incidents that year and several people were convicted and sentenced to prison, including for shootings in which no one was injured by the gunfire.

That year the state Department of Motor Vehicles also began revoking the licenses of people arrested on suspicion of freeway violence. In addition, lawmakers made the act of brandishing a weapon on the roads -- whether unloaded or loaded -- a felony.

Anyone with information about Sunday’s shooting is asked to call LAPD detectives at (818) 838-9800.

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Freeway attacks

Investigations of the recent Southland freeway shootings do not show a link among the incidents, according to the California Highway Patrol.

* March 12 about 1 p.m.

Jake Tuason, 26, is killed on the Costa Mesa Freeway between the Santa Ana Freeway and the 17th Street exit.

* March 29 about 2 p.m.

Michael Livingstone, 20, is killed on the Harbor Freeway near the Manchester Avenue exit.

* April 13 about 2:10 p.m.

James Wiggins, 47, is killed on the Harbor Freeway near the Redondo Beach Boulevard exit. A passenger also is wounded.

* April 22 about 2:30 a.m.

Ricky Smith, 32, is killed on the 60 Freeway at the 215/60/91 interchange in Riverside.

* April 24 about 1:45 a.m.

An unidentified man, 32, survives gunshots on the Costa Mesa Freeway between the Santa Ana Freeway and the 17th Street exit.

* Sunday about 12:45 a.m.

A 19-year-old man is shot and wounded while driving north on the San Diego Freeway between Roscoe Boulevard and Nordhoff Street.

* Sunday about 1:15 a.m.

CHP investigates reports of gunshots fired on the Foothill Freeway near Hubbard Street but is unable to confirm a shooting took place.

Source: Times staff reports

Times staff writer Bettina Boxall contributed to this report.