Road Shooting Probe Intensifies

Southern California marked its eighth freeway shooting in two months Monday as authorities established a special task force aimed at halting the violence that has baffled detectives and frightened commuters.

The shootings have left four men dead and four injured, but investigators are struggling to generate leads and so far have made no arrests.

The killings within such a short period have attracted intense media interest, marking the third time in two decades that freeway violence in Southern California has generated national headlines.

But law enforcement officials stressed that there was no indication that freeway shootings had actually increased.

“We don’t want the public to think there’s an onslaught [of shootings],” said CHP Assistant Chief Art Acevedo. “We are actually on pace to have fewer shootings this year, and remember, these shootings are taking place in three counties that are heavily traveled with high populations. Compare that to shootings that take place on a daily basis and that puts a proper perspective on the size of the problem.”

The latest incident occurred during the Monday afternoon commute when someone fired through the windshield of a car on the Antelope Valley Freeway in Santa Clarita. Investigators closed the freeway for about an hour to search for shell casings.

Police also disclosed a previously unreported attack that occurred Saturday. A 16-year-old driver on the Golden State Freeway was shot three times, but drove himself to the hospital.

In an effort to reassure motorists, the California Highway Patrol on Monday created an investigative unit to work with local law enforcement agencies to track down leads in the cases, which have been spread across Los Angeles, Riverside and Orange counties. Officials also boosted the number of marked patrol cars as well as unmarked vehicles such as pickup trucks and compact cars that would cruise the freeway system.

The CHP said it was considering buying camera recording equipment for the freeways that could automatically read license plates. Such a system might allow law enforcement to identify cars that had passed through a particular section of the freeway at a particular time, and allow officers to contact potential witnesses and suspects.

Joel Best, the head of the sociology department at the University of Delaware who studied reports of the freeway violence in 1987, said such incidents are deeply frightening, although the likelihood of dying from freeway violence is far less than the chance of being killed in a traffic accident.

“You sort of assume you’re going to get through the day and not be struck by lightning and you’re going to get through the day without having someone you don’t know shooting you for no reason,” said Best.

Best, however, cautioned that such “crime waves” often represent a spike in media coverage of certain types of incidents rather than a true trend.

Indeed, so far this year, 11 freeway shootings have been reported in which a person or vehicle was hit by gunfire within Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Police Department said. That is two fewer than over the same time period a year ago.

In 2004, 36 freeway-related shootings were reported within Los Angeles, and one resulted in a death. In 2003, four people were killed and 46 incidents reported. (The CHP does not have current statistics on the number of freeway shootings.)

Authorities believe that the most recent shootings are unrelated. No common pattern has emerged. Some victims were black, others Latino, and at least one was white.

“We don’t believe there is one shooter going around shooting up people,” Acevedo said. “We believe these are random acts of violence.”

The shootings first attracted attention on March 12 when a 26-year-old Fontana man was fatally shot in the head on the Costa Mesa Freeway in Tustin about 1 p.m. Seventeen days later, in another midday shooting, a 20-year-old college student was fatally shot on the Harbor Freeway in South Los Angeles. In ensuing weeks, two additional shootings occurred on the same two stretches of freeway -- one during daytime, one in the early morning, leaving one man dead and two others injured.

On April 22, a San Bernardino man was shot and killed in an early morning shooting on the Pomona Freeway in Riverside.

This weekend, two teenagers were shot and injured in separate shootings on freeways in the San Fernando Valley.

One attack left a 16-year old wounded early Saturday after an altercation on the Golden State Freeway in Sun Valley. In that case, gestures were exchanged by the victim and suspect on a street leading up to the freeway, and the suspect pursued the victim onto the freeway, Acevedo said at a press briefing Monday at the CHP’s Los Angeles County headquarters in Glendale.

LAPD officials described “road rage” as the motive in that shooting, which left a 17-year old passenger uninjured.

In the other, a 19-year old man was shot multiple times. He drove several miles on the San Diego Freeway in North Hills before seeking help from paramedics on a surface street. The man, who told police he was shot at “for no reason,” described four or five assailants in their late teens and with shaved heads, in a black Honda.

The shootings have rattled some area commuters enough to change their driving patterns. Others say the shootings -- at least some of which appear to be random and with no obvious motive -- are out of their control.

At a Unocal 76 station in South Los Angeles near the stretch of the Harbor Freeway where Michael Livingston, 20, was killed on March 29, Darnell Williams said all he could do was get out of the way of erratic drivers and hope for the best.

“I don’t let what’s going on interfere with what I do on a daily basis. You can’t let fear take over,” said Williams, a telephone serviceman who drives an average of 800 miles per week on the region’s freeways. “God is who I’m afraid of. When he says it’s time to go, it’s time to go.”

At a Mobil station in Woodland Hills, several drivers said their concerns had increased when shootings were reported on freeways they were using.

“When it was on the Harbor Freeway I wasn’t worried, but now it’s closer,” said Sid Quashie, a 36-year-old screenwriter from Woodland Hills.

Quashie, who travels the Ventura and San Diego freeways daily, said the randomness of the shootings made him uneasy.

“You don’t know when it’s going to hit. It’s happened at night, and it’s happened during the day,” he said. “You can’t assume you’re safe just because it’s daylight, and that’s the scary part.”

Some drivers were defiant.

“It’s getting closer to home, and that’s very scary,” said Sandra Lanza, an administrative assistant from Tarzana, pumping gas at an Exxon station in Tarzana. “But we can’t allow it to scare us. It’s just like the terrorists. If they stop us, they’ve won. I have faith in the LAPD that they’ll find these criminals.”

But investigators said the incidents could be difficult to solve, since witnesses can be hard to locate and might not have seen or heard anything useful.

“People tend to have tunnel vision,” said CHP Officer Rick Quintero. “They are distracted from other drivers by cell phones, the radio or conversations. Now they are paying more attention, they are a little more aware.”

Freeway shooting first emerged as a Southern California phenomenon in 1987, when at least five people were killed and more than a dozen injured in the summer. Some motorists began placing conciliatory signs in car windows, and the violence became the focus of comedians’ jokes -- fueling the image of angry Southern California commuters trapped in their cars.

In 1998, freeway violence again drew headlines after three shootings in Orange County killed two women and injured a third.

Authorities said Monday that the shootings should be a reminder to drivers to be courteous and not take risks.

“If someone is tailgating you and flashing their high beams, simply get out of the way,” said Acevedo. “The sad fact of our society today is that there are a lot of armed individuals out there and we don’t need to encourage someone ... who might be mentally ill, under the influence or looking for notoriety to select you as a target.”

Anyone with information about the freeway shootings is asked to call 877-LAWFULL (877-529-3855).

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Times staff writers Andrew Blankstein, Susana Enriquez and Tonya Alanez contributed to this report.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Shootings

Freeway-related shootings within the city of Los Angeles:

*--* Incidents Fatalities 2001 41 2 2002 46 4 2003 46 4 2004 36 1 2005* 11 2

*--*

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Through May 1.

Source: LAPD

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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. Eight shootings have been confirmed and a possible ninth incident, in which nothing was hit, is still under investigation.

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 Livingston, 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 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.

Saturday about 3:30 a.m.

A 16-year-old driver survives three gunshots and drives himself to a hospital after an altercation on the northbound Golden State Freeway at Hollywood Way. His 17-year-old passenger was not injured. Authorities called it a ‘road rage’ case that began on a freeway onramp.

Sunday about 12:45 a.m.

An unidentified man, 19, driving northbound on the San Diego Freeway between Roscoe Boulevard and Nordhoff Street survives gunshots.

Sunday about 1:15 a.m.

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

Monday about 3 p.m.

The windshield of a vehicle traveling northbound on the Antelope Valley Freeway in Santa Clarita is shattered by a bullet. Investigators shut down the freeway for about 45 minutes to investigate.

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Source: Times staff reports