Boy, 6, is shot and killed in car booster seat ‘after his mother gave other driver the finger on California freeway for cutting her off’
- Child was killed by a bullet while riding in the back of his mother’s Chevy sedan on State Route 55 in Orange, California, Friday morning
- Police say gunman who was seen traveling in white car is still at large
- Good Samaritans who stopped to help say they were told by the mother she had flipped off the driver of the white car for cutting her off
- Person in white car followed her and allegedly opened fire, with bullet going through Chevy’s trunk and hitting the boy in the back
A six-year-old boy riding in the backseat of his mother’s car on a Southern California freeway was shot and killed in a suspected road-rage attack, after his mother reportedly made an obscene hand gesture at another motorist.
The shooting took place at around 8am on Friday on the northbound side of State Route 55 in the city of Orange.
The gunman who fired the shot that killed the child remained at large as of Friday afternoon.
A six-year-old boy was shot and killed in what California police are calling an isolated road-rage incident that occurred on State Route 55 Friday morning
The child’s mother was driving this silver Chevy sedan when she flipped off another motorist for cutting her off, as she later told Good Samaritans who stopped to help
‘It was an isolated road rage incident between the mom and another driver from a white sedan,’ California Highway Patrol Officer Florentino Olivera told KTLA-TV at the scene.
Olivera said the deadly gunshot came from a white sedan and struck the rear of a silver Chevrolet Sonic that was traveling ahead of it.
‘Unfortunately, the child that was seated in the right rear seat was struck,’ he said.
The boy was pronounced dead at Children’s Hospital Orange County. His name was not immediately released.
Reyes and Joanna Valdivia told Orange County Register they were taking their children to school when they saw the visibly distressed driver of the Chevrolet pull her wounded son from the backseat and collapse to the ground.
Police are pictured on the scene of the road-rage shooting, in which a bullet when through the back of the Chevy and struck the six-year-old who was in his booster seat
The freeway was shut down for hours as about a dozen investigators slowly walked the lanes looking for evidence
When the couple pulled over to offer help, Reyes said the mother, whom he described as ‘hysterical,’ told them she had showed the middle finger to the driver of the white sedan who cut her off in the carpool lane.
The mother told the Good Samaritans that when she veered to the right, the white sedan followed her and a gunshot went off.
According to Valdivia, there was a bullet hole in the silver Chevrolet and the six-year-old appeared to have been shot in the back.
Other motorists stopped to help, including an off-duty police officer who performed CPR on the victim until paramedics arrived.
The freeway was shut down for hours as about a dozen investigators slowly walked the lanes looking for evidence.
Reyes and Joanna Valdivia stopped to help the boy’s mother and spoke to her about the shooting
CBS Los Angeles reported that there have been nearly a dozen pellet and BB gun shootings on freeways across Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties over the past three weeks, but Olivera said Friday’s road-rage killing was unrelated to those earlier incidents.