A 4-year-old boy in California was fatally shot when a man opened fire on the family’s vehicle during a road rage incident.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said the shooting occurred Friday around 7:30 p.m. on the Sierra Highway in Lancaster.
Police said during the incident, the suspect driver cut the victims off on the road and began following them through several streets. The victim driver slowed his vehicle, and the suspect driver pulled up along the passenger side of the victim’s car and began shooting.
A 4-year-old boy in the backseat was struck by gunfire in the upper torso, police said. The child’s parents, who were in the vehicle, immediately transported their son to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Investigators tracked down the suspect vehicle in the immediate area and arrested a Black 29-year-old male and a white 27-year-old female for murder.
"We're praying for the family," Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris told local station KABC. "We understand that this is a really good family. I've talked to members of their church. It's unimaginable that this could have been any of our families. It could have been any of us."
On Facebook, the mayor said the suspects were tracked down via the city’s “recently installed flock camera safety net.”
An investigation remains ongoing.
Police ask anyone with information to contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500. Information can be reported anonymously by calling 800-222-TIPS or online at http://lacrimestoppers.org.
