Man killed, woman shot in mouth in car parked in Hacienda Heights

A gunman opened fire on a man and a woman inhaling nitrous oxide in a car in the hills of Hacienda Heights early Thursday, killing the man and critically injuring the woman, Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials said.

The woman was sitting in the driver’s seat of a parked Chevy Spark on the shoulder of Turnbull Canyon Road, where she and the man were inhaling laughing gas, sheriff’s Lt. Robert Westphal said.

Another car stopped behind them about 1 a.m. and a man exited, walked to the first vehicle and shot the woman in her mouth, Westphal said. The shooter then walked around to the car’s passenger side and shot the man, killing him instantly.

When sheriff’s deputies arrived, the woman was conscious and breathing — “in remarkable condition for having sustained a serious head wound,” Westphal said.

She was transported to a local hospital, where she is in critical condition, authorities said.

Sheriff’s deputies have not identified a suspect in the shooting but said the gunman was in a gray sedan that headed south on Turnbull Canyon Road after the attack.

Authorities are still examining the car for evidence and checking for nearby surveillance video. Investigators found multiple shell casings in the area, but Westphal said they appear unrelated to the early morning shooting.

“It sounds like that’s a common area where people go up and shoot their guns off and race cars and park,” he said.

He added that without more evidence, it would be “pure speculation” to describe the shooting as either targeted or random.