2 More Drivers Report Being Fired Upon on Valley Roads

Two more freeway shootings were reported on San Fernando Valley highways Wednesday and California Highway Patrol officers said they were deluged by calls from frightened motorists, including complaints they suspect are groundless.

The incidents were the latest in a series of at least 13 roadway shootings reported in Southern California since mid-June. The shootings, mostly traffic related, have claimed four lives and injured four people.

Four of the reported shootings occurred in the San Fernando Valley and two in the Santa Clarita Valley.

In the most recent incident, a Palmdale motorist reported that a driver shot at him late Tuesday on the Antelope Valley Freeway in the Canyon Country area, the CHP said.

Phillip Toma, 26, was not hurt, and his vehicle was undamaged after the reported shooting about 11 p.m., CHP Officer Ralph Elvira said.

Toma told officers that a Chevrolet Caprice carrying three men followed him closely with high-beam headlights, Elvira said. Toma said he changed lanes to allow the car to pass. It pulled in front of him, but then slowed, and Toma moved beside it to pass, the officer said.

Toma reported that a passenger aimed a handgun at him, that he ducked and heard a “pop,” Elvira said.

Another reported shooting occurred about 2:45 p.m. on the eastbound Ventura Freeway near the Balboa Boulevard exit. The caller, a tow truck driver, told the CHP that someone shot at his fender from a silver Toyota pickup truck, then exited the freeway.

‘A Potshot’ That Missed

However, when CHP officers investigated, they found no evidence of gunfire. “It was just a potshot that didn’t hit anything,” said Thomas Coleman, a CHP spokesman. “The man just wanted to report it.” The truck driver did not give his name.

CHP Officer Bruce Turner said the spate of shootings has prompted people to exaggerate lesser traffic-related confrontations.

“There can’t be that many people out there shooting, there’s just no way,” he said. “My partner had a call from a lady. When he asked if there was a gun involved, she said no. Then later she said, ‘Yeah, I think there was a gun.’

“Everybody can’t be telling the truth.”

More than 100 callers contacted the CHP dispatch office Wednesday, not all of them reporting actual shots fired. Some of the callers simply expressed fear of being shot at, or reported someone tailgating them. Others calls were false alarms, Coleman said.

Turner said reports of shootings have risen dramatically since Saturday. He said he received about 50 calls Wednesday, twice the usual number of trouble and crime calls. The flood of calls overloaded the patrol’s phone circuits and CHP officials plan to bring in two more employees to field them, Turner said.

“I think we get about two or three calls a minute on one line,” Turner said. “There was a time when, at a certain part of the day, the calls would slow down, but they don’t slow down any more. In fact, they never stop.”

Turner said he has received some “crazy calls” along with the reports of shots fired. But he takes down information and relays it to a task force handling the shootings. The task force “contacts the ones they think are valid.”

“One lady called in and asked if somebody pointed a gun at her, could she shoot them,” Turner said.