Long Beach Man Shot, Hit on Freeway in La Mirada
A Long Beach man died Saturday after he was wounded in a car-to-car shooting and then hit by a passing truck on the Santa Ana Freeway.
Darnell Little Jr., 25, was pronounced dead at the scene in the northbound lanes in La Mirada, authorities said. The attack, they said, may have been gang-related.
The incident began about 2 a.m. between the Beach and Artesia boulevard exits in Buena Park when the car in which Little was riding, a white 1997 Honda Passport, was fired upon by the occupants of another vehicle, described as a blue Chrysler 300M or Dodge Magnum.
“We’re figuring that about nine rounds were fired,” said Sgt. Gary Worral of the Buena Park Police Department, “then the suspects fled the scene.”
The driver of the Honda, Jennifer Gardner, 28, of Long Beach, lost control of her vehicle and struck the median, according to Officer Raquel Stage, a spokeswoman for the California Highway Patrol in Santa Fe Springs.
Little, whose gunshot wounds were not believed to have been life-threatening, got out of the Honda to talk with Gardner and was struck by a passing GMC truck that then sideswiped another car, Stage said.
Gardner was booked on suspicion of drunk driving.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
