Random Southern California freeway shootings have left 5 dead and drivers jittery
04-06-08 | 12:56 AM
#1
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Random Southern California freeway shootings have left 5 dead and drivers jittery
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/s...shootings.html
Random Southern California freeway shootings have left 5 dead and drivers with the jitters
By Thomas Watkins
ASSOCIATED PRESS
1:39 a.m. April 4, 2008
LOS ANGELES – Until a few weeks ago, Jeffrey Mines thought the freeway was the best way to cover the 20 miles from Compton to his sick uncle's house in Hollywood.
Not any more. A recent bout of unrelated freeway shootings, one of the worst ever to hit Southern California, unnerved Mines so much that he found another route.
“The freeways are just not safe,” said Mines, 45, who now stays on city streets. “I am trying to save my life.”
At least seven shootings in the past six weeks along major roadways have resulted in five deaths and several injuries. Many drivers have been left with the jitters, and jammed commuter corridors have been brought to a halt while authorities searched for clues.
Officials said the shootings were unconnected.
“There is no trend,” said CHP Officer Tony Garrett, a spokesman for the agency. “The public tends to think this is an increase; it's just random incidents.”
Since Feb. 27, a 54-year-old chiropractor died after she was shot in the head while driving on the 10 Freeway in eastern Los Angeles County; a 26-year-old man died after a shooting on the 101 Freeway following an argument on Hollywood Boulevard; and two teenage boys died after they were shot on a state highway in San Diego County.
Another death was being investigated as a possible suicide.
Authorities also were investigating an apparent BB gun attack that shattered rear windows of six vehicles on the 10 Freeway in eastern Los Angeles County.
With witnesses hard to find, no arrests have been made in any of the cases. Some experts believe such high-profile incidents can spawn copycat attacks.
“When you see an event like this happen, it does create a suggestion in the minds of others to do the same thing,” said Lawrence Palinkas, an anthropologist at the University of Southern California who researches the psychological effects of shootings and other traumas.
Mines said his nephew had his tires shot out as he drove on a freeway in South Los Angeles in February. He is convinced that drivers are getting more stressed out as they grapple with rising gas prices and the other demands of getting by in Los Angeles.
Police can struggle when investigating the attacks. Officer Jackie Bezart, a spokeswoman for the Long Beach Police Department, said potential witnesses often speed by shooting scenes, unaware that an attack occurred.
Some drivers said they were more worried by reckless drivers than freeway shooters.
“I am more afraid of the guy on the cell phone than I am the sniper,” said Don Feeney, 40, who refuels vehicles for a movie production company.
“For the millions of miles that are traveled on California freeways, the number of shootings is few and far between,” said Garrett, the CHP spokesman.
Freeway shootings gained widespread notoriety in 1987, when a string of about 50 unrelated shootings in Southern California left at least five people dead and more than a dozen injured. The attacks were blamed in part on increased anger and frustration over rising traffic volume and roadway construction.
In 1998, three attacks on women drivers and several other shootings left at least three dead.
In the summer of 2005, four people were killed in freeway shootings in the Los Angeles area. Police arrested two men in connection with one of the slayings but later dropped charges after they were unable to find a key witness.
The killings prompted the CHP to form a special task force to investigate such crimes. Garrett said the task force had not been reactivated so far in this year's shootings.
Ray Russell, 65, a superintendent for a construction company, said he worries about highway shooters as he makes his rounds across Los Angeles in his pickup truck.
“It's something I consider as being a very good possibility,” Russell said as he pumped diesel fuel at a service station in Echo Park near downtown. “We have become almost animals with no sense of values, no sense of life. It bothers me.”
Random Southern California freeway shootings have left 5 dead and drivers with the jitters
By Thomas Watkins
ASSOCIATED PRESS
1:39 a.m. April 4, 2008
LOS ANGELES – Until a few weeks ago, Jeffrey Mines thought the freeway was the best way to cover the 20 miles from Compton to his sick uncle's house in Hollywood.
Not any more. A recent bout of unrelated freeway shootings, one of the worst ever to hit Southern California, unnerved Mines so much that he found another route.
“The freeways are just not safe,” said Mines, 45, who now stays on city streets. “I am trying to save my life.”
At least seven shootings in the past six weeks along major roadways have resulted in five deaths and several injuries. Many drivers have been left with the jitters, and jammed commuter corridors have been brought to a halt while authorities searched for clues.
Officials said the shootings were unconnected.
“There is no trend,” said CHP Officer Tony Garrett, a spokesman for the agency. “The public tends to think this is an increase; it's just random incidents.”
Since Feb. 27, a 54-year-old chiropractor died after she was shot in the head while driving on the 10 Freeway in eastern Los Angeles County; a 26-year-old man died after a shooting on the 101 Freeway following an argument on Hollywood Boulevard; and two teenage boys died after they were shot on a state highway in San Diego County.
Another death was being investigated as a possible suicide.
Authorities also were investigating an apparent BB gun attack that shattered rear windows of six vehicles on the 10 Freeway in eastern Los Angeles County.
With witnesses hard to find, no arrests have been made in any of the cases. Some experts believe such high-profile incidents can spawn copycat attacks.
“When you see an event like this happen, it does create a suggestion in the minds of others to do the same thing,” said Lawrence Palinkas, an anthropologist at the University of Southern California who researches the psychological effects of shootings and other traumas.
Mines said his nephew had his tires shot out as he drove on a freeway in South Los Angeles in February. He is convinced that drivers are getting more stressed out as they grapple with rising gas prices and the other demands of getting by in Los Angeles.
Police can struggle when investigating the attacks. Officer Jackie Bezart, a spokeswoman for the Long Beach Police Department, said potential witnesses often speed by shooting scenes, unaware that an attack occurred.
Some drivers said they were more worried by reckless drivers than freeway shooters.
“I am more afraid of the guy on the cell phone than I am the sniper,” said Don Feeney, 40, who refuels vehicles for a movie production company.
“For the millions of miles that are traveled on California freeways, the number of shootings is few and far between,” said Garrett, the CHP spokesman.
Freeway shootings gained widespread notoriety in 1987, when a string of about 50 unrelated shootings in Southern California left at least five people dead and more than a dozen injured. The attacks were blamed in part on increased anger and frustration over rising traffic volume and roadway construction.
In 1998, three attacks on women drivers and several other shootings left at least three dead.
In the summer of 2005, four people were killed in freeway shootings in the Los Angeles area. Police arrested two men in connection with one of the slayings but later dropped charges after they were unable to find a key witness.
The killings prompted the CHP to form a special task force to investigate such crimes. Garrett said the task force had not been reactivated so far in this year's shootings.
Ray Russell, 65, a superintendent for a construction company, said he worries about highway shooters as he makes his rounds across Los Angeles in his pickup truck.
“It's something I consider as being a very good possibility,” Russell said as he pumped diesel fuel at a service station in Echo Park near downtown. “We have become almost animals with no sense of values, no sense of life. It bothers me.”
04-06-08 | 09:30 AM
#4
Freeway shootings gained widespread notoriety in 1987, when a string of about 50 unrelated shootings in Southern California left at least five people dead and more than a dozen injured. The attacks were blamed in part on increased anger and frustration over rising traffic volume and roadway construction.
You sit in traffic and get pissed off, so you cap everyone around you? WTF?
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04-07-08 | 11:24 AM
#9
There can only be One
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 6,461
Likes: 1
From: FL
Isn't this reminiscent of the shootings from those other two John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo and the DC shootings.
Copy Cats popping up all over the place!
Virginia
Copy Cats popping up all over the place!
Virginia
A 19-year-old suspect was arrested on Friday in connection with a series of highway shootings near Charlottesville, Va., that left two people with minor injuries, the state police said.
Slade Allen Woodson was arrested at a single-story clapboard house in Virginia’s Albemarle County, the authorities said, after an early morning standoff with police that culminated in gunfire.
Police charged Mr. Woodson with a separate shooting at a credit union and residence in Waynesboro, Va., that took place early Thursday morning, according to local press accounts. But he was also considered a suspect in the shootings that took place later that day along a 20-mile stretch of Interstate 64 near Charlottesville, forcing the authorities to close the highway for several hours.
The shootings, which appeared to be random, occurred within an hour’s drive of the area near Washington that was terrorized by the sniper attacks in 2002 that left 10 people dead and 3 wounded.
Six vehicles, including a tractor-trailer and a dump truck, were hit by bullets, along with a maintenance building owned by the Department of Transportation. Two drivers were treated for minor injuries at a local hospital and released.
Police said a second person may have been involved in the shootings, but they have not yet identified a suspect, they said, according to The Associated Press.
Mr. Woodson was arrested at a small house on Yonder Hill Farm, in Crozet, Va., early Friday morning. Another person in the house, who was not identified, confronted the police, brandishing a handgun; he was shot and flown to a nearby hospital.
Mr. Woodson, who was charged with two felonies, was one of five people in the house at the time. Police officers said he was the owner of an orange 1974 AMC Gremlin that appears to match the one seen in a surveillance tape of the shooting at the credit union on Thursday.
Slade Allen Woodson was arrested at a single-story clapboard house in Virginia’s Albemarle County, the authorities said, after an early morning standoff with police that culminated in gunfire.
Police charged Mr. Woodson with a separate shooting at a credit union and residence in Waynesboro, Va., that took place early Thursday morning, according to local press accounts. But he was also considered a suspect in the shootings that took place later that day along a 20-mile stretch of Interstate 64 near Charlottesville, forcing the authorities to close the highway for several hours.
The shootings, which appeared to be random, occurred within an hour’s drive of the area near Washington that was terrorized by the sniper attacks in 2002 that left 10 people dead and 3 wounded.
Six vehicles, including a tractor-trailer and a dump truck, were hit by bullets, along with a maintenance building owned by the Department of Transportation. Two drivers were treated for minor injuries at a local hospital and released.
Police said a second person may have been involved in the shootings, but they have not yet identified a suspect, they said, according to The Associated Press.
Mr. Woodson was arrested at a small house on Yonder Hill Farm, in Crozet, Va., early Friday morning. Another person in the house, who was not identified, confronted the police, brandishing a handgun; he was shot and flown to a nearby hospital.
Mr. Woodson, who was charged with two felonies, was one of five people in the house at the time. Police officers said he was the owner of an orange 1974 AMC Gremlin that appears to match the one seen in a surveillance tape of the shooting at the credit union on Thursday.
04-07-08 | 02:22 PM
#10
Lexus Champion
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 4,330
Likes: 1
From: I wonder why I live alone here...
That's the terrifying thing about murder like this: it can be committed from hundreds of feet away by someone in a bush on a hillside, or in a speeding car that can be miles away from the crime scene by the time the police are aware of what happened.
This sort of thing is not easily preventable, and the perps are not easily brought to justice. People in the LA area have a right to be scared, especially since there's such a history of things like that there. I'm sure driving around LA is bad enough on a "good" day, but this would truly scare the shat out of me.
04-08-08 | 01:03 AM
#11
the thing that sucks is that everyone who lives in so cal needs to use the freeways,and with millions of cars on the road and even more millions of people living here, unlikely they will be caught. these shooting have been happening on and off for years now, and while i dont want to say we are de-sensitized, but it happens and there isnt much you can do. Well except for keep the CHP on speed dial and stay armed yourself.
04-08-08 | 01:42 AM
#12
Lexus Fanatic
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 11,030
Likes: 7
From: Windward, Oahu
wow shootings in Los Angeles... who woulda thought... *yawn*
When i lived in ktown every once in awhile (=every couple of days) i'd hear 'fireworks'... didnt know the ppl that live there celebrate chinese newyrs (=every couple of days), especially since the ppl who live in ktown AREN'T asian at all
When i lived in ktown every once in awhile (=every couple of days) i'd hear 'fireworks'... didnt know the ppl that live there celebrate chinese newyrs (=every couple of days), especially since the ppl who live in ktown AREN'T asian at all
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