An SUV was fired upon while cruising the Harbor Freeway in South Los Angeles Tuesday afternoon, damaging the driver's side and rear windows but leaving anyone inside uninjured. The light-colored vehicle was taken off the freeway at the Vernon Avenue off-ramp after the gunfire, according to investigators, in the latest reminder that Southern California's freeways have become unpredictable territory for ordinary commuters.
The shooting happened at about 3:10 p.m. on the northbound Harbor (110) Freeway between Slauson and Vernon avenues, according to the California Highway Patrol, as MyNewsLA.com reported. Sources at the scene described the vehicle simply as a light-colored SUV, and the CHP said it was taken off the freeway at the Vernon Avenue exit once the danger had passed.
No other details about the gunfire — including who fired it, how many shots were exchanged, or why — have been made public.
A Pattern of Freeway Gunfire Across LA County
Tuesday's shooting adds to a string of freeway gun incidents that have rattled Los Angeles-area drivers this year. In May, the CHP arrested Martin Moreno-Pacheco in connection with a string of car-to-car shootings on the 405 Freeway, including one near Wilmington Avenue that occurred on May 23 and was reported by the victim on May 26, and another south of Vermont Avenue at about 5:30 a.m. on May 28, according to KTLA. The CHP said those two incidents, plus a third from May 22, were tied to the same individual, and officers later found a loaded BB gun inside the suspect's truck after his arrest before sunrise on May 29.
The Daily Breeze, reporting on the same arrest, noted the suspect was taken into custody in connection with shootings in the Carson and Harbor Gateway areas, with the Daily Breeze identifying him as Martin Moreno-Pacheco per the CHP. Separately, a shooter opened fire on a car in the southbound lanes of the 5 Freeway in Sun Valley, shattering its front driver-side window in an incident reported shortly after 10:30 p.m., according to ABC7. That station reported the driver and passenger escaped injury, though scene video appeared to show at least four bullet holes in the window, and the motive remained unknown.
Statewide Numbers Tell a Mixed Story
Despite the steady drumbeat of incidents making headlines, statewide data paint a more complicated picture. Confirmed freeway shootings across California fell from 349 in 2022 to 274 in 2023 — a decline of more than 21 percent, and down 38 percent from 2021, according to Hoodline's earlier reporting on a separate Sun Valley freeway shooting.
That same Sun Valley case involved gunfire shattering a car's front driver-side window on the southbound 5 Freeway, with the driver pulling off and stopping on Sheldon Street; neither the driver nor the passenger was hurt, per the earlier Hoodline account. The piece also noted a separate road-rage incident on Interstate 5 in northeast Los Angeles that left one passenger dead and the driver injured, underscoring that not every freeway confrontation ends without serious harm.
As of Tuesday evening, no arrests or suspect description had been released in connection with the Harbor Freeway shooting, and it remains unclear whether the incident is connected to any of the other freeway shootings reported across Los Angeles County this year. Drivers along the 110 corridor between Slauson and Vernon avenues are left, for now, with more questions than answers about what sent bullets into a stranger's SUV in broad daylight.
