Driver Unknowingly Drags Shooting Victim 3 Blocks

A motorist who witnessed a drive-by shooting as he exited a freeway in the Mid-City area early Thursday unknowingly dragged the body of one of the victims under his car for three blocks, police said.

The unnamed motorist and his passenger, a visitor from Italy, did not realize that 18-year-old Reginald Sams was under the car until they stopped at a gas station at Arlington Avenue and Washington Boulevard, said Los Angeles Police Detective Richard Hoffman.

Sams and a companion, Shawn Smith, 23, each were shot several times from a passing pickup truck at 12:15 a.m. as they walked south on Arlington near the Santa Monica Freeway, Hoffman said. The motorist ducked when the gunfire started and kept driving, not realizing Sams had fallen in front of his vehicle, the detective said.